Elon Musk Wins $ 775 Million Performance-Based Tesla Payout

Elon Musk is officially on the money.

On Thursday, the Tesla CEO became eligible to cash in on a controversial payday that could lead to more than $ 700 million.

The electric car maker he said in a presentation that his board had certified the operational milestone needed to unlock first prize in Musk’s stunning $ 50 billion pay package, which required him to drive the value of the Tesla stock market to an average of more than $ 100 billion in the last six months.

Musk now has the option to buy 1.69 million Tesla shares at $ 350 per pop. At Tesla’s closing price on Thursday of $ 805.81, the billionaire could invest his new shares for a profit of approximately $ 775 million.

Musk’s award comes just weeks after he listed two Bel Air mansions on real estate site Zillow, after a series of tweets in which he said Tesla’s stock price was “too high” and that “it wouldn’t be owner of no house “and would get rid of most of his possessions

To win his full $ 50 billion prize, Musk would have to drive Tesla to a market capitalization of $ 650 billion by 2028. Tesla’s board signed the compensation package in March 2018, when the market capitalization of Tesla was $ 52.46 billion.

Musk still has eight years to overcome 11 more valuation hurdles, primarily in $ 50 billion increments, costing him approximately $ 5 billion each. If Tesla fails any other milestone, Musk will receive no more money from Tesla.

The South African-born billionaire does not receive a Tesla salary and only earns money through performance-based rewards.

A full reward for Musk, who is also the majority owner and CEO of rocket maker SpaceX, would exceed anything previously awarded to American executives.