Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Thursday won shareholder approval for a pay plan that can cast him to become the world’s first trillionaire. The package could grant Elon Musk, already the richest person in the world, up to USD 1 trillion in stock over the next decade given, he meets certain targets over his tenure as CEO set up by the board.
Musk’s goals include producing 20 million vehicles, deploying 1 million robotaxis, selling 1 million humanoid robots, and reaching USD 400 billion in core profit within the next decade. For each milestone and corresponding valuation increase from USD 2 trillion up to USD 8.5 trillion, Musk will receive 1% of Tesla stock, for a potential total of 12% for 12 such targets. So the plan could still hand Musk tens of billions of dollars even if he falls short of most of its ambitious targets.
Musk won the shareholders approval for the largest corporate pay package in history as investors endorsed his vision of morphing the EV maker into an AI and robotics juggernaut.
If fully realised, Musk’s stake in Tesla would rise from 13% to 25%, adding an estimated 423 million shares to his holdings. The calculation estimates a potential windfall valued at around $1 trillion, assuming Tesla achieves an $8.5 trillion market capitalisation.
Though required payments would reduce Musk’s $1 trillion stock options to USD 878 billion, the pay plan still presents a solid boost to the earnings of the world’s richest individual. Not only that but Musk’s potential payout now dwarfs CEO compensation offered by some of the biggest companies across the world.
Here are the top 5 CEOs with the highest compensation besides Musk.
1. Satya Nadella, Microsoft ($79.1 million)
Following Musk on the compensation chart, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella earned a total of $79.1 million this year, reflecting the company’s robust performance amid its deepening push into AI and cloud computing led by its partnership with Open AI. Microsoft’s market cap presently stands at $3.77 trillion, with its stock rising 17.9% year-to-date.
2. Tim Cook, Apple ($74.6 million)
Apple chief Tim Cook follows Nadella closely with $74.6 million in total pay. Cook’s compensation reflects Apple’s steady growth in services and wearables even as iPhone demand plateaus in the west. The US tech giant recently inked a partnership deal worth $1 billion with Google to use its advanced Gemini large language model (LLM) to power the Siri assistant. Apple recently hit a market capitalization of $4 trillion on October 28, 2025, becoming the third company ever to reach this valuation.
3. Jensen Huang, Nvidia ($49.9 million)
Riding the AI boom, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang earned $49.9 million cementing his position as one of the most rewarded tech executives globally. Nvidia’s market cap presently stands at $4.57 trillion, making it one of the most valuable firms in the world at the moment.
4. David Ricks, Eli Lilly ($29.2 million)
Pharma major Eli Lilly’s CEO David Ricks boasts a compensation of $29.2 million, buoyed by investor optimism over its weight-loss and diabetes drug pipeline. The firm’s market cap hit $0.88 trillion recently, placing Ricks among the few non-tech leaders in this elite list.
5. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta Platforms ($27.2 million)
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg secured $27.2 million in compensation this year, as the company doubled down on AI and the metaverse despite cooling ad growth. Meta’s market cap hovers around $1.6 trillion.