Opinion At Tesla's annual shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas, more than 75 percent of voting shares backed a compensation deal for CEO Elon Musk that would make him history's first trillionaire.
I've read that his record-shattering deal had the stockholders up on their feet dancing, chanting his name, and applauding.
To make Musk a trillionaire, over the next decade he must:
This deal comes after Musk has already been awarded the largest compensation package, $56 billion, in corporate history. Courts have challenged this award, but even if Tesla loses its appeal, Musk will still get tens of billions.
Of course, this is all chump change if Musk succeeds in his new deal's goals. But can he do all this? Let's look at the tape. Tesla's financial performance over the last three years has shown slowing growth, with declining profits and only modest increases in revenue. From 2023 through 2025, the company has faced rising costs, margin pressure, and growing competition in the electric vehicle (EV) market.
In the United States, Tesla sold approximately 578,644 vehicles in 2024. This helped Musk maintain Tesla's dominance, with nearly 50 percent of the US EV market. However, US sales overall are estimated to have fallen 11 percent year-over-year for 2025. Musk blames, with reason, President Donald Trump for ending EV tax credits and imposing tariffs. Looking ahead, Musk said in July: "We probably could have a few rough quarters."
The rest of the world is far less rosy for Tesla. In China, Tesla's sales fell 8.4 percent from 2023 to 2024. More recently, in October 2025, Tesla's sales in China dropped to 26,006 vehicles. That's the lowest monthly total in three years. Across the pond, Tesla has fallen like a brick. In Germany, for instance, sales have dropped by more than half year-over-year.
In the EU and UK, European luxury cars, unbound by US tariffs, and Chinese EV manufacturers, such as BYD, which is blocked from the American market, are surpassing Tesla. BYD, in particular, with its cheaper prices, fast charging, and good range, has seen explosive growth.
What this has meant for the bottom line is Tesla's revenue and income have been stagnant to declining. In 2024, the company's annual revenue increased to $97.69 billion, but that's less than 1 percent growth from 2023. Simultaneously, net income declined to $7.15 billion from $14.97 billion.
2025 looks far worse. Tesla saw its revenue for the trailing 12 months down about 1.5 percent year-over-year. Net profits continued to fall, with Q3 2025 reporting a 37 percent drop in profit compared to the previous year, namely $1.37 billion, down from $2.17 billion.
You may have noticed I haven't said a thing about Musk's volatile online personality, his politics, or his constant bouncing from one project to another. That's because, love him or hate him, from a purely business perspective, Tesla is no longer the bright, shining star of electric cars. Under Musk's distracted leadership, Tesla has been in decline.
The hope is that a trillion-dollar carrot will keep Musk's attention focused on Tesla rather than playing with politics or any of his many other companies such as SpaceX, X, or xAI. The only way Musk will get his trillion is if he achieves all his compensation plan's moonshot goals. It's not quite an all-or-nothing contract, but it's not too far from that either.
The cold hard numbers, though, tell me he can't do it. I don't think anyone could.
Tesla's stockholders are delusional. No one is worth a trillion dollars, certainly not someone whose corporate results in the last few years have been mediocre.
AI, cryptocurrency, gold, and Tesla. Way too many of the one percent, and those who desperately want to be in the one percent, think that all they need is to plant some magic crypto beans or follow the right leader, and they'll become high-figure millionaires or billionaires. Some day soon, and it won't be long, the money merry-go-around will stop spinning and all those dreams will come crashing to a halt. ®
Source: The register