Elon Musk is known as the man behind the electric car revolution. Thanks to his famous company, Tesla, he has made supercars not just eco-friendly but also more accessible to the masses in comparison to some of its established competitors.
While the superstar businessman has developed a massive fandom thanks to his bizarre antics and ambitious ideas, a series of serious controversies surrounding his behavior on social media led to his unfortunate downfall.
Tesla’s stocks tumbled last year following Musk’s failed attempt at taking the carmaker private, and investors were further infuriated by Musk’s explosive NYT Interview triggering a massive turnover in the company, especially at the executive level.
Despite these hurdles, sources reveal Elon Musk’s net worth is still more than the combined income of 65 highest-paid CEOs in the United States. Let us unveil how much Musk made in 2018.
NYT’s Report
New York Times recently published a list of 200 CEOs of prestigious U.S. traded companies and their annual salaries.
According to the study, Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, made a staggering $2.3 billion in 2018 despite the fact that he hasn’t taken a single paycheck from the company ever since it was established. The CEO says that he’ll only take a salary once Tesla reaches a market cap of $100 billion.
According to NYT’s report, Musk mainly accumulated his wealth from Tesla’s stocks and shares, despite the recent downturn following the series of controversies surrounding the company. Trailing just behind him was Discovery’s David M. Zaslav, who only made $129 last year.
A Massive Disparity
Not only is Musk’s compensation significantly higher than other top CEOs in the country, but the report showed that his compensation package of $2.3 billion was more than the combined salaries of 200 CEOs!
Tesla reveals the board approved Musk’ compensation in March 2018. If Musk hits new milestones for Tesla, especially in the field of market capitalization, the CEO gets to unlock a special compensation package.
Tesla’s Clarification
Meanwhile, it was later clarified that Musk’s total compensation didn’t just come from Tesla’s stocks. According to the carmaker, Musk declined any monetary compensation, cash bonuses or equity from his shares in 2018.
Tesla later released a statement refuting NYT’s claims by saying that Musk made $0 from the company last year and the only compensation he is willing to accept is a performance award once he doubles Tesla’s market cap. This goal motivates Musk to think about the company’s long-term success instead of his personal gains.
Other Top CEOs on the List
The other highest-paid CEOs who made it to the list includes Nikesh Arora of Palo Alto Networks with $125 million net worth.
Landing on the fourth and fifth spots are Oracle’s Mark V. Hurd and Safra A. Catz with $108 million each. John J. Legere also earned an astounding $67 million from his company, T-Mobile.
Meanwhile, Robert A. Iger of Walt Disney took home a $66-million paycheck. Landing on the 8th spots is James Heppelmann from PTC with $50 million followed by Fabrizio Freda from ESTÉE LAUDER with $48 million and Vivek Shah from J2 Global for $45 million.