Musk's 2025 Total Compensation Exposed: Over 1 Trillion Yuan in Stock Compensation, Hourly Rate Equivalent to 120 Million Yuan, But Actual Take-Home Income Is Zero?

Odaily: Recently, Tesla submitted an annual disclosure filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), officially announcing that CEO Elon Musk's total compensation for 2025 was $158.359 billion (approximately 1.07 trillion yuan), all granted in the form of stock awards. The compensation consists of two parts: a $132.3 billion 2025 long-term performance stock award, plus a $26.06 billion temporary transition award, of which the transition award was subsequently voided. The combined book-value total of the two is $158.359 billion. If this astronomical book figure is converted based on 8,760 hours in a year, it equates to Musk earning $18.08 million per hour, approximately 120 million yuan.

However, it should be made clear that $158.359 billion is not cash that Musk has taken home; it is merely the accounting fair value estimate of Tesla's 2025 CEO performance award plan at the grant date.

At the same time, Tesla explicitly stated in the filing that in fiscal year 2025, Tesla did not meet the market capitalization and operating performance targets corresponding to this incentive plan. Therefore, Musk's actual take-home income for the full year of 2025 was zero—no cash income, and no equity was unlocked. The relevant shares are currently in a locked state. (Bianniu Shi)