Mark Zuckerberg · SpaceX · Tesla · Meta · Elon Musk · Fortune Technology
Elon Musk bullet-proofed his $1 trillion ‘Mars-shot’ pay at SpaceX after the epic battle over his $56 billion moonshot at Tesla
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What sets Musk’s SpaceX pay package apart is how thoroughly insulated it is from the kind of lawsuit that nearly cost Musk his, at-the-time, unprecedented award from Tesla, which was the largest in U.S. corporate history.
Key facts
- To get the other 300 million shares, he has to hit 12 market cap milestones from $1 trillion to $6.6 trillion and set up data centers capable of delivering 100 terawatts of compute per year
- He pointed to Zuckerberg’s unsuccessful $70 billion Metaverse push, which drove share values down to about $90 in late 2022 before they recovered to more than $600
- After Musk’s 2018 Tesla stock options grant was challenged, Tesla awarded Musk another moonshot with a potential $1 trillion upside in 2025 and structured it as performance-based restricted
- To earn and monetize 1 billion of the shares, Musk has to hit 15 market capitalization milestones up to $7.5 trillion and establish a “permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million inhabitants
Summary
Remember the legal brawl CEO Elon Musk faced over his $56 billion moonshot pay package at Tesla? To boot, SpaceX is no longer incorporated in Delaware, the state whose court struck down the Tesla package. There are no surprises here, said Jay Ritter, a University of Florida finance professor and longtime scholar of IPOs. “If you don’t like it, you don’t have to buy it at that price,” said Ritter, referring to the $135 per-share price planned for the IPO.