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The worlds richest man, Elon Musk, stands to get a lot richer in the decade aheadperhaps. Thats because his largest and only publicly traded company has put together a proposal that, if approved by shareholders, would see Musk granted nearly $1 trillion worth of shares. This would not only make Elon Musk the worlds richest individual by a long shot, but the worlds first trillionaire, too. However, for Musk to get this massive payout, there are plenty of conditions attached. Heres what you need to know about Teslas $1 trillion offer to Musk. Whats happened? Today, Tesla, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA) announced its proposal that would see its CEO, Elon Musk, awarded nearly $1 trillion worth of TSLA shares if the company hit significant milestones over the next decade. The massive compensation package would be the largest for any single individual in history and make Elon Musk the worlds first trillionaire. In an interview with CNBC, Tesla chairwoman Robyn Denholm said the motive behind the compensation plan for its billionaire CEO was to keep him motivated and focused on delivering for the company. Musk has been criticized by Tesla investors this year for diverting his time and attention away from Tesla to his political activities, which have included supporting far-right parties in Europe and serving as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under the Trump Administration. This political involvement has turned off a number of Tesla customers and, in part, contributed to a decline in Tesla sales across various countries in 2025. Teslas compensation package for Musk, worth around $975 billion, aims to get the CEO focused on the car company again. If he performs, if he hits the super ambitious milestones that are in the plan, then he gets equityits 1% for each half a trillion dollars of market cap, plus operational milestones he has to hit in order to do that, Denholm said. Musk currently owns about 13% of Tesla. But for Musk to get the whole of this massive compensation package, which includes a total of more than 423 million additional shares, several milestones need to be reachedincluding ones no company in history has ever achieved. The terms of Elon Musks trillion-dollar Tesla compensation package There are several caveats attached to the potential historic compensation package Tesla is suggesting. First, the compensation consists of 12 tranches of shares that will be paid out if certain milestones are hit. This means Msuk would receive some compensation, but not the total proposed amount if not all the milestones are reached. CNBC reports that the operational milestones of Musks compensation package include: 20 million Tesla vehicles delivered 10 million active FSD subscriptions 1 million robots delivered 1 million Robotaxis in commercial operation A series of adjusted EBITDA benchmarks They also include an ever-increasing Tesla stock price, with the company needing to achieve a market capitalization of $8.5 trillion for Musk to receive the complete pay package. Tesla would need to become the worlds most valuable companyby a long shot To achieve the first milestone in the compensation package, Tesla would need to reach a market cap of $2 trillion. Currently, the company is about $1.1 trillion, which means its stock price would need to nearly double from todays price of $350 per share. That in itself is a big ask, considering Tesla sales have suffered declines in markets around the world in 2025. But for Musk to receive the full nearly $1 trillion compensation package, Teslas value would need to reach a market cap of $8.5 trillion. This would by far make it the most valuable company in history. Currently, the most valuable company ever is Nvidia, with a current market cap of around $4 trillion. The company had a market cap of $4.4 trillion in Augustmaking it the most valuable company in history. Tesla would need to more than double Nvidias current market cap to hit the $8.5 trillion valuation demanded by the compensation package. Or, to put that in another way, Tesla would need to become more valuable than the two most valuable companies todayNvidia (worth $4 trillion) and Microsoft (worth $3.7 trillion)combined. Musks historic pay package isnt a certainty Before Musk even has a shot at becoming the first person to be awarded nearly $1 trillion in compensation, however, Tesla shareholders need to approve the proposed pay package. Its far from certain whether they will do that. The new package will be put to a shareholder vote on November 6. As for Teslas current stock price, as of the time of this writing, TSLA shares are currently up around 3.9% to almost $352 per share after the compensation package proposal was made public. However, year to date, the companys share price is still down. TSLA shares have fallen more than 12% since the beginning of the year, and they remain well below their peak of $488 in December 2024.
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Despite the upsides of progress and innovation, the future can also be a never-ending source of anxiety. For many, early excitement and enthusiasm for experimentation eventually gives way to massive fears about disruption. For creatives especially, recent opinions about the future typically oscillate between absolute doom and relative boon. Still, Ive found that thinking about the future is always worthwhile. In fact, its when creatives are at our best. Thats because since the birth of the internet, the rise of digital display, search, interactive video, and mobile, weve seen the value of being the first to try. To fail. To learn. And to keep going. When social media (and later creators) forced us to think and execute at the speed of culture, we embraced that too. And now, in the AI era, were learning to navigate a landscape where the rules change on a daily basis. As the battles are fought to determine the future of business, culture, and innovation, creatives will always be on the front line. Because when everything is changing all the time, its creativessteeped in popular culture and driving innovation through our ideaswho have the skills and responsibility to lead. Thats why our community needs to be pioneering when navigating the future of creativity. We need to nurture the companies, culture, and talent that push beyond the fear to see an exciting future worth embracing. Shifting perceptions, rising expectations In the creative industry, change is constant. But in my work with the creative organization and educational charity D&AD, reviewing thousands of entries for our awards each year, Ive seen more than just trends coming and going. Ive seen that while technology has become more deeply embedded in the work, the most celebrated ideas are still those that put people at the center: solving real problems, creating connections, and shaping culture. Access to powerful tools has democratized the field, but it has also led to raised expectations. Brands want ideas that move faster, work harder, and live seamlessly across disciplines. Categories that once felt separate, from product design to experiential to impact, are increasingly blurred. This shift is clear in a lot of the work that won this year. Sightwalks from UNACEM is a brilliant idea for tactile sidewalk patterns to help visually impaired people. Apples AirPods Pro 2, with integrated hearing health and hearing aid features, reframed accessibility as an expectation in consumer tech. Spotify Spreadbeats, Thanks for Coke-Creating, and The Everyday Tactician from Xbox each demonstrate how technology can amplify craft while keeping creativity anchored in human needs and cultural context. However advanced the tools become, the most powerful ideas still come from the skill to turn cultural understanding and creative ambition into something new. That truth connects the best of this years winning work, and it will be just as vital as the creative industries continue to evolve. Prepare for the future Ultimately, the best way for creatives to prepare themselves is to continue to nurture the essential human qualities that transcend technology, categories, or mediums. That includes a mindset that thrives on imagination and experimentation, taking advantage of creatives natural flexibility and talent for adaptation so that they can collaborate to develop the most forward-thinking creative ideas. Nurturing that flexibility and adaptation look different depending on where you sit. Within a business, it means building systems that can respond to change without breaking. It also requires structures that allow for input, ambiguity, and iteration as well as a dedication to seeking out talent with different backgrounds, lived experiences, training, and skillsets. Meanwhile, for the creatives themselves, its about learning to stay curious in uncertain moments. And learning to contribute before the path is fully clear while collaborating across their differences in discipline, background, culture, and point of view. The future will always be uncertain. But uncertainty is more than a challenge. It’s an opportunity to develop or strengthen the skills that will make creatives and their unique points of view invaluable in turbulent times. With the right mindset and a supportive environment, creatives can trade their fear of the future for a curiosity that will always keep them on the bleeding edge. Kwame Taylor-Hayford is the cofounder of Kin and president of D&AD.
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In 2025, 1 in 4 new automotive vehicle sales globally are expected to be an electric vehicleeither fully electric or a plug-in hybrid. That is a significant rise from just five years ago, when EV sales amounted to fewer than 1 in 20 new car sales, according to the International Energy Agency, an intergovernmental organization examining energy use around the world. In the U.S., however, EV sales have lagged, only reaching 1 in 10 in 2024. By contrast, in China, the worlds largest car market, more than half of all new vehicle sales are electric. The International Energy Agency has reported that two-thirds of fully electric cars in China are now cheaper to buy than their gasoline equivalents. With operating and maintenance costs already cheaper than gasoline models, EVs are attractive purchases. Most EVs purchased in China are made there as well, by a range of different companies. NIO, Xpeng, Xiaomi, Zeekr, Geely, Chery, Great Wall Motor, Leapmotor and especially BYD are household names in China. As someone who has followed and published on the topic of EVs for over 15 years, I expect they will soon become as widely known in the rest of the world. What kinds of EVs is China producing? Chinas automakers are producing a full range of electric vehicles, from the subcompact, like the BYD Seagull, to full-size SUVs, like the Xpeng G9, and luxury cars, like the Zeekr 009. Recent European crash-test evaluations have given top safety ratings to Chinese EVs, and many of them cost less than similar models made by other companies in other countries. A Wall Street Journal video explores a Chinese dark factoryone so automated that it doesnt need lights inside. Whats behind Chinese EV success? There are several factors behind Chinese companies success in producing and selling EVs. To be sure, relatively low labor costs are part of the explanation. So are generous government subsidies, as EVs were one of several advanced technologies selected by the Chinese government to propel the nations global technological profile. But Chinese EV makers are also making other advances. They make significant use of industrial robotics, even to the point of building so-called dark factories that can operate with minimal human intervention. For passengers, they have reimagined vehicles interiors, with large touchscreens for information and entertainment, and even added a refrigerator, bed or karaoke system. Competition among Chinese EV makers is fierce, which drives additional innovation. BYD is the largest seller of EVs, both domestically and globally. Yet the company says it employs over 100,000 scientists and engineers seeking continual improvement. From initial concept models to actual rollout of factory-made cars, BYD takes 18 monthshalf as long as U.S. and other global automakers take for their product development processes, Reuters reported. BYD is also the worlds second-largest EV battery seller and has developed a new battery that can recharge in just five minutes, roughly the same time it takes to fill a gas-powered cars tank. Exports The real test of how well Chinese vehicles appeal to consumers will come from export sales. Chinese EV manufacturers are eager to sell abroad because their factories can produce far more than the 25 million vehicles they can sell within China each yearperhaps twice as much. China already exports more cars than any other nation, though primarily gas-powered ones at the moment. Export markets for Chinese EVs are developing in Western Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Australia and elsewhere. The largest market where Chinese vehicles, whether gasoline or electric, are not being sold is North America. Both the U.S. and Canadian governments have created what some have called a tariff fortress protecting their domestic automakers, by imposing tariffs of 100% on the import of Chinese EVsliterally doubling their cost to consumers. Customers budgets matter too. Te average price of a new electric vehicle in the U.S. is approximately $55,000. Less expensive vehicles make up part of this average, but without tax credits, which the Trump administration is eliminating after September 2025, nothing gets close to $25,000. By contrast, Chinese companies produce several sub-$25,000 EVs, including the Xpeng M03, the BYD Dolphin and the MG4 without tax credits. If sold in America, however, the 100% tariffs would remove the price advantage. Tesla, Ford and General Motors all claim they are working on inexpensive EVs. More expensive vehicles, however, generate higher profits, and with the protection of the tariff fortress, their incentive to develop cheaper EVs is not as high as it might be. In the 1970s and 1980s, there was considerable U.S. opposition to importing Japanese vehicles. But ultimately, a combination of consumer sentiment and the willingness of Japanese companies to open factories in the U.S. overcame that opposition, and Japanese brands like Toyota, Honda and Nissan are common on North American roads. The same process may play out for Chinese automakers, though its not clear how long that might take. Jack Barkenbus is a visiting scholar at Vanderbilt University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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