On Monday, Tesla held its quarterly earnings call for Q1 2021, and while Tesla saw record-breaking net income numbers, CEO Elon Musk also qualified for another hefty payout.
Tesla’s record-breaking first-quarter earnings earned Musk payouts from stock options totaling $11 billion, according to Yahoo Finance.
The news of Tesla’s $438 million net income, along with $10.39 billion raised in revenue, comes amidst an ongoing chip shortage around the world, which has negatively affected the entire auto market.
Elon Musk Reportedly Says Tesla Has Chance of Delivering 1 Million Cars in 2021 https://t.co/p9lXFUT1j2
— TeslaNorth.com (@RealTeslaNorth) March 28, 2021
On top of being CEO of Tesla, Musk heads up space exploration company SpaceX. Instead of receiving a salary at Tesla, Musk is paid through a complex stock options package, which requires the company to accomplish a series of growing financial goals.
With every tranche, Musk gains the option to purchase 8.4 million Tesla shares at $70 each, which, when compared to Monday’s $722 open, is over 10% of the actual stock price – ultimately generating nearly $6 billion per tranche.
Tesla’s Q1 earnings report detailed, “our operating income improved in Q1 compared to the same period last year to $594M, resulting in a 5.7% operating margin.”
It continued to say, “this profit level was reached while incurring SBC expense attributable to the 2018 CEO award of $299M in Q1, driven by an increase in market capitalization and a new operational milestone becoming probable,” referring to Musk’s new qualifying options payout.
