Elon Musk Could Score $824 Billion Payday in Tesla-SpaceX Merger—Ross Gerber Says ‘Fantastical Abundance!’
Investor Ross Gerber praised Elon Musk's potential $824 billion payout from Tesla's compensation package if the company merges with SpaceX, calling it 'fantastical abundance.' The WSJ reports the cap has dropped from $1 trillion due to increased share count. Half of performance targets would be met upon a merger, with the award based on the higher of deal price or pre-deal market value. Meanwhile, other investors question Tesla's FSD progress as Musk promotes Starlink integration.
Investor Ross Gerber has weighed in on a clause inside Elon Musk‘s Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) compensation package that could grant him a windfall worth hundreds of billions of dollars if the EV giant merges with or is taken over by an enterprise like Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ:SPCX).
No Longer $1 Trillion? Tesla CEO Pay Package Tops Out At $824 Billion
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the pay package approved by investors back in November that could potentially result in Musk securing a trillion-dollar payday is now reportedly topping out at $824 billion, due to the number of outstanding Tesla shares rising since the package was approved, the report said.
Read Also: Tesla Burns Through Funds Allocated for Gavin Newsom’s EV Rebate Within Days—California Governor Hails Clean Energy Bet
Tesla did not immediately respond to Benzinga‘s request for comment.
While the pay package is tied to performance-related milestones, like Full Self-Driving (FSD) subscriptions, vehicle deliveries, Robotaxis, Optimus Robot and more, half of the operational targets would effectively be treated as satisfied in the event of a takeover or merger, leaving the market-value targets to determine the award, according to the report.
The conditions also stipulate that the award would be based on the merger/acquisition’s deal price or Tesla’s market value just before the deal, whichever remains higher. The report said that a potential $8.5 trillion acquisition of Tesla could help deliver the pay package’s full 424 million shares to Musk.
Read Also: Elon Musk Dismisses Report Tesla Could Sell Chinese Business for SpaceX Merger: 'Absurdly Fake News'
On Tuesday, the Gerber Kawasaki co-founder took to X, quoting a post from The Wall Street Journal. “Fantastical abundance!” the investor said in his post.
Fantastical abundance! $TSLA $SPCX https://t.co/S175HJjUqn
— Ross Gerber (@GerberKawasaki) August 11, 2026
Gary Black on Tesla’s FSD Ramp, Elon Musk on Starlink-Enabled Cars
The comment comes as investor Gary Black of The Future Fund LLC said that investors were “losing faith” that Tesla would be able to solve unsupervised autonomy and questioned whether Tesla’s management thought that the FSD system was safe enough to scale.
Meanwhile, Musk touted Starlink-enabled cars, saying that the satellite-based internet service provider was the only way to ensure high-speed bandwidth to billions of vehicles across the Earth.
Price Action: Tesla shares rose 0.33% to $333.90 during pre-market trading on Wednesday.
Read Also: Elon Musk Says Starlink Will Be in Every Car, Calls It the ‘Only Way’ To Connect Billions of Vehicles
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