Elon Musk in numbers

9 companies, one timeline

Tesla's own filings describe its chief executive's career in one long paragraph. Drawn as lanes it reads like this: two internet companies sold in 1999 and 2002; SpaceX since 2002; Tesla's board since 2004 and the chief executive's office since 2008; SolarCity until Tesla bought it in 2016; then X and xAI, which merged in 2025 and became part of SpaceX in 2026.

Bars show only what a filing dates. Where it gives just the sale, there is just a diamond; The Boring Company and Neuralink, which the filing names without dates, get a name and no bar.

Tesla: from $112M to $94.8B a year

Tesla reported revenue of $112M for 2009 and $94.8B for 2025. It lost money in each of its first 11 reported years and first made a profit in 2020. The best year for profit so far was 2023, with net income of $15B; in 2025 the net income was $3.79B.

Revenue peaked in 2024 at $97.7B. That is still short of $100B, the first revenue target of the 2018 pay award that Tesla never reached (more below).

10.2 million cars, a block for every 50,000

Tesla's annual reports and its quarterly delivery releases add up to 10,210,711 vehicles handed to customers: about 2,450 Roadsters to 2012, then everything from the Model S on. The busiest year was 2023 with 1,808,581; 2025 brought 1,636,129, −9.5% on that peak.

The grid below has room for 20 million cars — the first product goal of the pay award approved in 2025, counted from the very first delivery. 51% of it is filled; 9.8 million to go. 2026 so far: 1,324,681 in 3 quarters.

What the shares returned, by Tesla's own count

Tesla first sold shares to the public at $17.00 in June 2010. After a 5-for-1 split in 2020 and a 3-for-1 split in 2022 — 15 shares today for every share then — that is $1.13. Tesla's own filing puts the closing price on December 31, 2025 at $449.72: ×397 in about 15.5 years, or 47% a year. Tesla has never paid a dividend, so the price is the whole return.

The pay-versus-performance tables of Tesla's proxies tell the recent part with reinvestment built in: $100 at the end of 2019 was worth $1,608 at the end of 2025, ×16.1 or 59% a year — not in a straight line: 2022 alone took 65.3% off the value. Past returns are history, not a forecast.

The 2018 pay package: a ladder with 12 rungs

On January 21, 2018 Tesla's board granted Elon Musk options on 20,264,042 shares — 303,960,630 on today's share basis — in 12 equal tranches of 1% of the company each, at $350.02 a share ($23.34 after the splits). Each tranche needed two things. Tesla's market value had to climb a rung: $100B for the first, then $50B more each time, up to $650B. And one of 16 operational targets for revenue or adjusted EBITDA had to be hit.

When the award was granted Tesla was worth about $50B, its proxy said, so the top rung asked for $600B more. Shareholders approved the plan on March 21, 2018, with 73% of the votes cast outside the Musk brothers' shares. The filings show the first tranche met in Q2 2020 and the last in Q4 2022: the market-value rungs were all climbed by Q2 2021, and the last tranches waited for their operational targets.

16 targets, 12 needed

Any operational target could pair with any rung, one target per tranche. Tesla hit all 8 adjusted-EBITDA targets and 4 of the 8 revenue targets — 12 in all.

In court: rescinded, ratified, restored

In June 2018 a Tesla shareholder sued to undo the award. The case file, step by step:

1. March 21, 2018

   Shareholders approve the award: 73% of the votes cast outside Elon and Kimbal Musk's shares, 81% of all votes cast. Tesla, Inc., current report: results of the special meeting

2. January 30, 2024

   The Delaware Court of Chancery (C.A. No. 2018-0408-KSJM) rules for the shareholder who sued: the award should be rescinded. Tornetta v. Musk, C.A. No. 2018-0408-KSJM, post-trial opinion (McCormick, C.)

3. June 13, 2024

   Tesla's shareholders vote to ratify the 2018 award: 72% of the disinterested votes, 77% of all votes cast for or against. Tesla, Inc., current report: results of the 2024 annual meeting

4. December 2, 2024

   The court declines to revise its ruling and awards the plaintiff's lawyers $345M. Tesla, Inc., annual report for 2025

5. December 19, 2025

   The Delaware Supreme Court reverses the rescission and reinstates the award; damages: $1, and a much smaller fee award. Tesla, Inc., annual report for 2025

6. March 18, 2026

   The Court of Chancery enters the final order implementing the reversal. Tesla, Inc., quarterly report, Q2 2026

7. April 21, 2026

   Tesla's board approves an agreement on how the options are to be exercised; the 96-million-share interim award of 2025 is forfeited, as its terms required. Tesla, Inc., quarterly report, Q2 2026

8. September 30, 2026

   Tesla's proxy table counts 286,428,773 restricted shares from the exercise: about 304.0 million options, less about 17.5 million shares that paid the exercise price. They vest on January 19, 2028 if he stays. Tesla, Inc., proxy statement for the 2026 annual meeting

In numbers: the trial court put the award's maximum value at $55.8B and its grant-date fair value at $2.6B. Exercising all 304 million options at $23.34 costs $7.09B — paid, in the end, in shares.

The 2025 award: 12 rungs from $2.0T to $8.5T

On September 3, 2025 Tesla's board granted a new award, and shareholders approved it on November 6, 2025: 1,892,235,822 votes for, 564,940,908 against. It is restricted stock rather than options — 423,743,904 shares in 12 tranches of 35,311,992. Each tranche needs a market-value rung, from $2.0T for the first to $8.5T for the last, and one of 12 operational goals: 4 product goals and 8 adjusted-EBITDA goals of up to $400B a year.

Tesla's proxy estimated the award's fair value at $87.75B. Its proxy of October 2026 says no tranche has been earned so far. One goal can be measured right here: 20 million Tesla vehicles delivered, counted from the very first one.

How much of Tesla he owns: 19.8%

Every proxy prints a table of the company's largest owners. Elon Musk's row went from 29.1% on December 31, 2010 to 19.8% on September 30, 2026, across 19 tables. The share count tells a different story: on today's share basis it grew from 425 million to 699.6 million, because the tables count options he could exercise within 60 days — and, since 2026, the restricted shares from the 2018 award.

The shares held by his trust changed far less over the 16 years: 385 million then, 413 million now. The biggest fall between two tables came from March 31, 2022 to March 31, 2023: 518 million to 411 million, 107 million fewer — the months of the Twitter deal.

Twitter: $54.20 a share, $46.5B of funding

On April 25, 2022 Twitter agreed to be bought by an entity owned by Elon Musk for $54.20 a share in cash, a deal its press release valued at about $44B — a 38% premium to the price before his stake became known. The 765.2 million shares outstanding at the vote's record date alone come to $41.5B. The deal closed on October 27, 2022.

Paying for it took $46.5B (the merger proxy's figure, with Twitter's debt and the fees), and the plan changed twice in 5 weeks. On April 20, 2022: $13B of bank loans, a $12.5B margin loan against his Tesla shares and $21B of equity. On May 4, 2022 the margin loan shrank to $6.25B and the equity grew to $27.25B; on May 24, 2022 the margin loan was gone and the equity stood at $33.5B, 72% of the total.

The bank part stayed at $13B: a $6.5B term loan, a $500M revolving facility and bridge loans of $3B (secured) and $3B (unsecured). Co-investors committed $7.139B of the equity on May 4, 2022, and Musk contributed the 73,115,038 Twitter shares he already owned — $3.96B at the deal price.

SpaceX, public since June 2026

SpaceX, which Musk has led since 2002, sold 555,555,555 shares at $135.00 in its initial public offering in June 2026 — $75B — and trades as SPCX. Its prospectus says he holds about 82.4% of the voting power after the offering, through two classes of shares. xAI, which absorbed X in 2025, became a SpaceX subsidiary in 2026.

Revenue as SpaceX reports it: $10.4B in 2023, $18.7B in 2025, and $27.1B in the 9 months to September 30, 2026, +97.5% on a year before, with a net loss of $413M.

The Boring Company and Neuralink: no numbers here

Both are private. They publish no audited accounts, so the revenues and valuations quoted about them come from press reports and funding rounds rather than from documents anyone can check. Until they file, this page lists them without numbers.