Aug 11, 2026
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Add us on GoogleWhile much was made of Elon Musk becoming a trillionaire earlier this year, the world’s richest man could see his fortune near or top $2 trillion if he decides to use SpaceX [NASDAQ: SPCX] to acquire Tesla [NASDAQ: TSLA].
Speculation has been growing steadily since the SpaceX IPO that Musk could consolidate his business empire, though he has made no public comments about doing so. Should he decide to, however, The Wall Street Journal reports such a move could trigger a clause in Musk’s contract that would accelerate a tremendous payday package, which the company approved last November.
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A line buried in the contract, at the bottom of the fifth page, declares half of the targets Musk previously had to meet to earn the payout would be considered met if Tesla is acquired or taken over.
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A longshot gets a lot closer
Musk reportedly lobbied for the $1 trillion pay package and even indicated he could leave the company if it wasn’t approved. Still, the package was seen by many as a long shot of ever being realized.
The agreement was made up of 12 tranches of shares to be granted to Musk if Tesla hit certain milestones in the next decade.
The first of those required Tesla to hit a market capitalization of $2 trillion. (The company currently has a market cap of $1.04 trillion, which is considerably less than Tesla’s $1.54 trillion evaluation last November.) The next nine tranches see Musk earning more stock each time Tesla’s value increases by $500 billion, up to $6.5 trillion.
The final two required market cap rises of $1 trillion each, which means Tesla would need to hit a market cap of $8.5 trillion for Musk to get the full package.
The Journal laid out a SpaceX offer that valued Tesla at a 54% premium, making it a $2 trillion deal. In an all-stock deal, Tesla shareholders would receive 3.8 shares in the combined company for each share they own.
Musk, meanwhile, would retain complete operational control of both companies. His Class B shares have 10 times the voting power of publicly traded Class A shares, giving him 73% of the voting power at SpaceX. Even if the deal values Tesla at a whopping $8.5 trillion, he would retain 56% of the voting power.
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To get the $1 trillion pay package, SpaceX would have to buy Tesla at that $8.5 trillion valuation.
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It’s about control
Since talk began about the Tesla pay package, Musk has insisted it was not about the money, it was about control, saying “I just don’t feel comfortable building a robot army here and then being ousted because of some asinine recommendations from ISS and Glass Lewis who have no freaking clue. I mean, those guys are corporate terrorists,” on Tesla’s quarterly earnings call last October.
Company officials agreed. “It’s less about compensation and more about the voting influence,” Board Chair Robyn Denholm told CNBC at the time.
It’s worth noting that because the number of Tesla shares has increased since the pay package was signed, Musk’s salary from Tesla would no longer hit $1 trillion, but would come in at about $824 billion.
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Chris Morris is a veteran journalist with more than 35 years of experience at many of the internet's biggest news outlets. In addition to his activities as a writer, reporter and editor, Chris is also a frequent panel moderator and speaker at major conferences, including CES and South by Southwest.
