It seems as if Tesla played no role in contributing to Elon Musk’s billionaire identity. A new Wall Street Journal report released this week suggested that the tech titan, who has also risen the ranks as Donald Trump’s ‘First Buddy’ was the lowest-paid CEO of an S&P 500 company. His very own multinational automotive and clean energy company reportedly paid him $0.
If you’re wondering why that is, the Tesla founder’s compensation package has been under the scanner since 2018, which is when shareholders deliberated over his record-breaking $56 billion compensation. This CEO Performance Awards, as it is officially called, totalled to a hefty amount as it took Tesla’s own performance into account. According to Barrons’, Elon Musk had to check off performance targets worth 10 years. When those would be hit, a payout of stock options would follow. However, the whole thing came crumbling down after the court rejected the pay package twice.
Given Musk’s bet on himself with this performance package, its valuation grew significantly over the years, making it the heftiest deal in corporate history, all thanks to Tesla climbing greater heights. Despite cracking all those successful milestones Musk remained for years on end, and he’s now reacted to it all.
Elon Musk reacts to being the lowest-paid CEO
As an X user shared a screenshot of this week’s Wall Street Journal report, highlighting the most significant takeaway about Musk being nothing at all, Elon spoke out. “Zero for seven years, despite increasing the value of the company > 2000%,” he wrote on X in response to the other tweet on Monday, June 2 (IST).
Despite shareholders originally voting in favour of the monster stock award in 2018, the court’s decision has left Musk empty-handed, as far as his returns from Tesla are concerned. Contrary to the company’s previous upward graph, its business is now struggling. As a result, Tesla is chalking up a new plan to compensate its leader.
Zero for seven years, despite increasing the value of the company >2000% https://t.co/QNNHxpi3T2
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 2, 2025
What’s the way out?
Given Musk’s status as the richest man in the world, Alan Johnson, managing director of Johnson Associates, a pay-consulting firm, said, “There’s no point in putting out millions when for him that would be irrelevant. It would be a lot of billions.”
Handing out advice on how to pay Musk in such a situation, Johnson said that the complexities of the 2018 stock award should be done away with. “The value today is enormous, and I think that has to be recognized—so maintaining or growing it relative to the market should be worth an awful lot of money,” he added. “It’s about value creation. It’s not about how many cars you’re going to sell.”
On the other side of the same payout scene, Axon’s Rick Smith was the top-paid CEO last year owing to his $165 million pay package. His rise to the top has been attributed to letting go of his old pay package, which was inspired by Musk’s infamous 2018 grant. Therefore, if Tesla was to take him up as a live example on how to build Elon’s compensation package, suggesting that he be paid like everyone else.
Smith’s yesteryear package relied on a “series of targets combining share price and financial measures, with restrictions preventing shares from vesting too quickly,” as per reported by WSJ. The Axon chief exec affirmed being on the “same mathematical plan as everyone else, adding that he would “love to see other companies copy that.”