[cagenut]

I'm a shareholder and I just voted against for basically this reason. I don't think the difference between owning 20 billion in equity and owning 25 billion in equity (or whatever) will mater to musk at all. he's fine. and he's going to try to finish what he started either way.

[wirelessest]

But the cost to his ego for not meeting a milestone which receives even more publicity because of the big price tag is a big motivator (or at least one could argue)

So even if the utility of the funds isn't consequential, a package like this might be one if the few ways to further incentivize a CEO like Musk.

[IntronExon]

If he’s not incentivized by all of the high ideals he claims, plus $20 billion, then he’s broken.

[Roverlord]

Maybe some people are infinitely incentivizable, because they can always figure out a way to do something useful with the money.

Bill Gates for instance, although his model seems to be give it all away to good causes he believes can accomplish good. Elon still seems to believe more in his own capabilities to accomplish worthwhile things with it.

I expect he too has a little txt file somewhere on his desktop, with various amounts as milestones to unlock the next project.

Maybe at $22 billion he can afford to start asteroid mining and in orbit construction or something that would top his current accomplishments.

[IntronExon]

Asteroid mining and orbital construction would require trillions in investment, and years of focused work by a number of institutions. As far as I can tell, Musk uses that rhetoric for PR, and it works. So far an electric car company and rockets suited for LEO don’t add up to grand space adventures.

[mulmen]

Permit me to rewrite history a bit for the sake of example. If you were a Paypal shareholder and Musk was CEO would you have supported this compensation package? Would you have supported it even if you didn't know SpaceX or Tesla were his ambitions?

[toomuchtodo]

Also a shareholder. Voted for. If Elon wants to die on Mars and needs personal wealth to get him there, as long as he delivers on his Tesla milestones, I've got no problem with it.

[tehlike]

HE can fund his future ambitions with the additional equity.