The $US1 trillion ($1.5 trillion) pay package the Tesla board has proposed for Elon Musk is one of those jaw-dropping statistics that takes some time for people to come to grips with.
Already the world’s richest man, the proposed compensation package would be worth more than the GDP of all but the 20 largest countries in the world. Obscene, disgusting or vulgar can’t begin to describe the notion of awarding one person that level of compensation for leading a company.
Elon Musk could be become the one-trillion-dollar man.Credit: AP
This is one for the history books, even for the US where corporate pay packets can run into the hundreds of millions. This remuneration package, devised by the Australian who chairs Tesla – Robyn Denholm – sits miles outside the bell curve.
The obvious question here is whether any person could be worth that much? If the answer to that question is no, then readers will be baffled by how investors reacted to the news of Musk’s proposed pay packet – Tesla shares went up 3 per cent.
The reason for that is, because to win the trillion dollars, Musk will need to surmount such colossal earnings and growth hurdles that he would metaphorically need to reinvent the wheel. The chances of him doing that are considered zilch.
Loading
And if he does manage the improbable miracle, then Tesla’s stock price, market capitalisation and earnings would be propelled into such stratospheric heights that shareholders will be richer than their wildest imaginations.
Musk managed to do the impossible in 2018, when he was set seemingly impossible hurdles, and clearly some intrepid investors are punting that he can repeat that feat.
The compensation plan sets 12 goals for the market cap, starting at $US2 trillion, about 75 per cent up on the current valuation, and rising after that by $US50 billion increments to an incredible $US8.5 trillion, the equivalent of double the size of today’s most valuable company, Nvidia.
