ALBAWABA - Tesla shareholders' choice to give Elon Musk a trillion-dollar compensation package has sparked a lot of heated discussion on social media. Critics and supporters are arguing over whether such a huge payout is fair or even right.
At Tesla's annual meeting in Austin, Texas, almost three-quarters of shareholders voted to give Musk the record-breaking deal. The CEO, who is already the richest person in the world with an estimated $482 billion, celebrated by dancing next to Tesla's humanoid robot and making big gestures while investors chanted his name.
If the deal goes through, Musk would become the first official trillionaire in history. Many people see this as a sign of the growing gap between the wealth of billionaires and the financial problems of regular people.
People say that the amount of money involved is hard to understand. If Musk spent $100 every second, it would take him more than three hundred years to run out of one trillion dollars. Analysts said that the same amount of money could buy hundreds of skyscrapers, thousands of commercial airplanes, or even twice the amount of gold the US has.
Even though the headline number was high, Musk would not get cash directly. Instead, the package gives him a huge block of Tesla shares, which is a quarter of the company. If Tesla meets aggressive performance goals over the next ten years, his net worth could reach a trillion dollars.
But those goals are very hard to reach. The business needs to make more money than ever before, increase its market value by several times, and produce far more than it does now. Tesla's board has said that Musk could be fired for good if he doesn't deliver.
The timing of the decision has made the situation even more controversial. Tesla's growth is slowing down, deliveries are going down, and competition is getting stronger. Since the news about the package came out, the company's stock has gone down, which shows that investors are worried that the goals may not be possible.
The approval caused a lot of different reactions online. Some people said that Musk should be given the chance to go after big goals that could change the future of technology. Others said the deal was a sign of an economic system that puts all the money in the hands of one person while millions of Americans have trouble paying for basic needs.
Defenders called the deal a risky business move that could pay off big if it works out, but Musk would get nothing if it doesn't. Critics said that no one executive should get such huge rewards, especially when the economy is getting worse and worse.
The debate is happening in the middle of a fierce race for dominance in the global electric vehicle market, where companies from China, Europe, and the US are all trying to win. In light of this, Musk's now-approved mega-deal raises bigger questions about how companies are run, who is responsible, and where Tesla is going in the future.
