Elon Musk: The Billionaire Who Works For Free

Can you imagine working for free? That's exactly what Elon Musk does. Now, of course, he has $23 billion reasons to not need any more money, but still! Musk is a visionary entrepreneur, owning 20% of Tesla, which has a current market cap of $60 billion. This means that over half of his wealth comes from his electric car company, while the rest stems from his majority stake in the private company SpaceX. Interestingly, Musk does not accept a salary at either company. It’s a bold strategy, but if he meets certain goals laid out by Tesla's board two years ago, he could potentially earn a staggering $100 billion. Let’s explore how this ambitious plan works.

First, it is essential to highlight that Musk has $500 million in debt. Recently, he mentioned being cash poor, a situation many can relate to, even if we don’t have millions in our bank accounts. Approximately 99% of Musk’s personal wealth is tied up in shares of Tesla and SpaceX. He owes $209 million in debt to Morgan Stanley, and at least $60 million of that is tied to mortgages on his homes. Additionally, he has about $213 million in debt owed to Goldman Sachs, with nearly half of his Tesla shares pledged as collateral to these banks. Musk reportedly exhausted all of his liquid funds from selling previous companies to launch SpaceX.

Back in January 2018, the board of Tesla introduced a compensation plan for Musk that could amount to $100 billion in stock options over a decade, contingent upon meeting specific goals known as tranches. There are a total of 12 tranches in this plan. Musk is eligible for the first chunk of stock options once Tesla hits a market cap of $100 billion. At the time of the announcement, Tesla's market cap was about $50 billion, and today it stands at $60 billion. After that initial milestone, Musk earns another tranche every time Tesla's market cap increases by $50 billion. If he can elevate Tesla’s market cap to $650 billion, he would unlock the full $100 billion.

However, if Musk fails to achieve any of these goals, he receives $0 in compensation despite working reportedly 80-hour weeks. He has opted out of a base salary of $56,380, meaning he doesn’t earn anything until he reaches the $100 billion market cap. Once that is accomplished, he would receive $10 billion, provided Tesla maintains that market cap for 12 months. This unique compensation structure is designed to keep him highly motivated!