Tesla Will Pay Elon Musk Only If He Accomplishes The Following

For anyone wondering whether or not Elon Musk will be sticking around as Tesla CEO, well, here's your answer. The California-based automaker has just announced that Musk will remain at the helm for at least another decade. It's all part of the 10-year plan Tesla has just announced. Already a billionaire, Musk will be given a "100 percent at-risk performance award," according to the statement. In other words, he'll only get paid out if the company meets a series of challenging milestones.

It'll work like this: Musk has a 10-year grant of stock options that will vest over 12 tranches. Each of the tranches will vest only if the market milestone is met. That first milestone is for Tesla to increase its market cap to $100 billion. Each following cap is then achieved at $50 billion increments. For Musk's stock to fully vest, that market cap must hit - wait for it - $650 billion. If it managed to hit that figure, then Tesla would become one of the largest companies by market capitalization in the US. To give you some perspective, Toyota was recently valued at around $160 billion while Apple is worth about $800 billion.

"For vesting to occur when the milestones are met, Elon must remain as Tesla's CEO or serve as both Executive Chairman and Chief Product Officer, in each case with all leadership ultimately reporting to him," according to the Tesla press release. "This ensures that Elon will continue to lead Tesla's management over the long-term while also providing the flexibility to bring in another CEO who would report to Elon at some point in the future."