The surge in Tesla Inc's stock market value beyond $1 trillion (about R14.7 trillion) on Monday is a double bonanza for chief executive Elon Musk, the electric car maker's largest shareholder.
The stock rallied 12.7 percent on the news that Tesla landed its biggest order from rental car company Hertz.
With Tesla's stock at a record high close of $1 024.86, Musk's 23 percent stake in the newly minted trillion-dollar company is worth about $230 billion, according to Refinitiv.
That stake includes options worth more than $50bn that have vested under Musk's 2018 compensation package.
In addition, Musk is a major shareholder and the chief executive of rocket maker SpaceX, a private company worth $100bn as of an October secondary share sale, according to a CNBC report.
Musk receives no salary at Tesla: his pay package provides 12 options tranches that vest when Tesla's market capitalisation and financial growth hit a series of rising milestones. The options let Musk buy Tesla shares at $70 each, a discount of more than 90 percent from their current price.
Last week, Tesla reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $3.2bn, up 77 percent from the year before. That was enough to vest his seventh options tranche, worth over $8bn as of Monday.
Tesla's six-month average stock market valuation is more than $650bn, clearing the way for all 12 of the options tranches in Musk's pay package, should the company reach increasingly higher targets related to revenue and adjusted EBITDA for the remaining five tranches.
REUTERS