The Tesla Board of Directors announced yesterday that it had established a new pay package for CEO Elon Musk, as it believes it is “critical” to secure his long-term commitment to the position.

However, the Board made it clear about Musk’s political involvement in its proxy filing, which announced the new pay package, and it seems the company is addressing it directly.

Elon Musk’s new pay plan ties trillionaire status to Tesla’s $8.5 trillion valuation

The proxy announced the massive pay package, which could give Musk $1 trillion if he achieves various goals that would help Tesla grow as an automaker, energy provider, and in the Robotics and AI sectors.

There are also some details about the Board’s decision, which we went over yesterday, as it felt that Musk was the right person to continue to lead Tesla for the foreseeable future.

It appears that there were four primary reasons behind the decision to retain Musk with this substantial pay package.

Tesla sought to secure Musk’s commitment to the company by offering him a path to increased ownership; if he were to achieve all tranches, he would hold approximately 27 percent ownership.

Another was to let Musk develop the newest Master Plan, which was released last week. Additionally, there needs to be a “meaningful framework for long-term succession planning led by the Board with Musk’s active participation.”

But there was one driving factor that was considered critical to Tesla: “Receive assurances that Musk’s involvement with the political sphere would wind down in a timely manner.”

This is an interesting tidbit in Tesla’s proxy filing. The board says: “Ultimately, the Committee believed it to be critical to Tesla to secure Musk’s commitment to Tesla, receive assurances that Musk’s involvement with the political sphere would wind down in a timely manner.”… pic.twitter.com/uGdVESprc8

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) September 5, 2025

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It is far from a secret that Musk’s involvement with President Donald Trump during his election campaign and after he was voted in rubbed many people the wrong way.

Musk was part of President Trump’s White House, serving as the Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and also acting as a Special Advisor.

 President Donald J. Trump purchases a Tesla on the South Lawn, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)

Musk’s political involvement impacted sales, but by how much is unknown.

It appears the Board is truly ready to move on from politics and focus on what matters: expanding AI, Robotics, and sustainable energy. For what it’s worth, Musk has backed away from politics significantly compared to how it was during election season.

Tesla’s Board of Directors has proposed a new pay package for company CEO Elon Musk that would result in $1 trillion in stock offerings if he is able to meet several lofty performance targets.

Musk, who has not been meaningfully compensated since 2017, completed his last pay package by delivering billions in shareholder value through a variety of performance-based “tranches,” which were met and resulted in the award of billions in stock.

Elon Musk’s new pay plan ties trillionaire status to Tesla’s $8.5 trillion valuation

However, Musk was unable to claim this award due to a ruling by the Delaware Chancery Court, which deemed the payout an “unfathomable sum.”

Now, the company is taking steps to ensure Musk gets paid, as the Board feels that it is crucial to retain its CEO, who has been responsible for much of the company’s success.

This is not a statement to undermine the work of all of Tesla’s terrific employees, but a ship needs to be captained by someone, and Musk has proven he is the right person for the job.

The Board also believes that, based on a statement made by the company in its proxy, various issues will be discussed during the upcoming Shareholder Meeting.

Robyn Denholm and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson recognized Musk’s contributions in a statement, which encouraged shareholders to vote to approve the payout:

“We’re asking you to approve the 2025 CEO Performance Award. In designing the new performance award, we explored numerous alternatives. Ultimately, the new award aims to build upon the success of the 2018 CEO Performance Award framework, which ensure that Elon was only paid for the performance delivered and incentivized to guide Tesla through a period of meteoric growth. The 2025 CEO Performance Award similarly challegnes Elon to again meet a series of even more aspirational goals, including operational milestones focused on reaching Adjusted EBITDA targets (thresholds that are up to 28 times higher than the 2108 CEO Performance Award’s top Adjusted EBITDA milestone) and rolling out new or expanded product offerings (including 1 million Robotaxis in commercial operation and delivery of 1 million AI Bots), all while growing the company’s market capitalization by trillions of dollars.

Yes, you read that correctly: in 2018, Elon had to grow Tesla by billions; in 2025, he has to grow Tesla by trillions — to be exact, he must create nearly $7.5 trillion in value for shareholders for him to receive the full award.

In addition to these unprecedented performance milestones, the 2025 CEO Performance Award also includes innovative structural features, born out of the special committee’s considered analysis and extensive shareholder feedback. These features include supercharged retention (at least seven and a half years and up to 10 years to vest in the full award), structural protections to minimize stock price volatility due to administration of this award and, thereafter, incentives for Elon to participate in the Board’s continued development of a framework for long-term CEO Succession. If Elon achieves all the performance milestones under this principle-based 2025 CEO Performance Award, his leadership will propel Tesla to become the most valuable company in history.”

Musk will have a lot of things to accomplish to receive the 423,743,904 shares, which are divided into 12 tranches.

However, the Board feels he is the right person for the job, and they want him to remain the CEO. This package should ensure that he stays with Tesla, as long as shareholders feel the same way.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said today that the company plans to completely eliminate Safety Drivers from its Robotaxi fleet, which differs from the Safety Monitors it uses.

Tesla’s Robotaxi platform utilizes employees in the front passenger seat during city rides in Austin and the driver’s seat of the vehicles during highway operations in Austin, as well as during all rides in the Bay Area.

Tesla adjusts Robotaxi safety monitor strategy in Austin with new service area

Musk said the presence of a Safety Driver “is just there for the first few months to be extra safe,” but there are plans to remove them in an effort to remove the crutches the company uses during the early stages of Robotaxi.

The CEO then outlined a timeframe for when it would remove the presence of an employee in the driver’s seat in both Austin and the Bay Area. He said there “should be no safety driver by end of year.”

The safety driver is just there for the first few months to be extra safe.

Should be no safety driver by end of year.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 4, 2025

Having a Safety Driver or Monitor has been a major point of criticism from Robotaxi skeptics and Tesla critics.

However, Tesla has maintained that its priority in the early stages is the safety of riders, which will keep things running; even a single negative incident could derail self-driving efforts as a whole, including those outside of the company.

Tesla executives have said their attitude toward safety is “paranoid,” but for good reason: an accident could set back the progress that it and many other companies, including rivals like Waymo, have made in the past few years.

For now, it might be a point of criticism for some, but it’s smart in the near term. Musk plans for Tesla to have Robotaxi operating for half of the U.S. population by the end of the year as well, so it will be interesting to see if it can maintain these timelines.