Tesla shareholders voted to approve Musk's $1 trillion compensation package on November 6. The vote passed. Norway's sovereign wealth fund voted against it. CalPERS voted against it. Glass Lewis and ISS urged rejection. Major institutional investors made real arguments about dilution and excessive payout potential. They all lost.

Here's the thing: Musk's probably not getting $1 trillion.

The package is structured as a 10-year performance award. The $1 trillion number assumes Tesla's market cap reaches $2.5 trillion and specific operational targets are hit. That's not a salary. That's not guaranteed. That's the theoretical maximum if everything goes right.

Right now Tesla's market cap is roughly $1 trillion. Doubling and a half over ten years while executing on robotaxi deployment, maintaining manufacturing leadership, and competing against every automaker switching to EVs? That's not a given. Glass Lewis valued the package at $141.6 billion, not $1 trillion. There's real disagreement about what the actual payout could be.

The Real Story Is Retail Versus Institutional Power

Institutional investors opposed this. Norway's $2 trillion fund said no. CalPERS said no. The proxy firms said no. They made legitimate points about shareholder dilution (up to 13%) and concentration risk.

Retail investors said yes. They're bullish on Tesla. They trust Musk. They voted with sentiment and enthusiasm.

Retail won. That's the actual headline. Not that Musk got $1 trillion, but that retail investor conviction now outweighs institutional governance concerns. That's a shift in how power is distributed in corporate America.

For Tesla specifically, it means shareholders just bet everything on Musk's execution over the next decade. He has to hit robotaxi targets, grow revenue, maintain margins, compete globally. If he does, the market cap heads toward $2.5 trillion and his compensation balloons. If he doesn't, the package shrinks or disappears.

That's alignment. It's also concentration risk with a single person's judgment determining the company's direction.

The interesting question isn't whether Musk will get $1 trillion. It's whether Tesla can actually execute at that level. And whether retail investors' confidence in him is justified.

Based on reporting from Business Insider, CNBC, Reuters, and proxy firm statements from the November 6, 2025 shareholder vote