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Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, is worth $422.3 billion on the Forbes Real Time Billionaires Index, while on the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, his net worth is $376 billion. The closest second is Meta’s co-founder and boss, Mark Zuckerberg, with a $237 net worth. While Zuckerberg draws a base salary of $1, taking away a premium from other sources of income. Many millionaires and billionaires willfully draw symbolic salaries worth $1 to $0. Not Elon Musk.
Reacting to a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) excerpt that mentioned his salary of zero dollars for several years as Tesla CEO, Musk quipped, “Zero for seven years, despite increasing the value of the company >2000%.”
The WSJ piece mentions that Musk was the lowest-paid CEO of any S&P 500 company in 2024. This is nothing voluntary, as the court blocked the billionaire’s $56 billion compensation package in 2018. A Delaware court in 2024 ruled Musk’s proposed salary as excessive and dubbed the board “supine servants of an overweening master.” In protest, the Tesla boss moved his company headquarters from Delaware to Texas.
Zero for seven years, despite increasing the value of the company >2000% https://t.co/QNNHxpi3T2
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 2, 2025
Meanwhile the internet was in disbelief at Musk’s salary as the CEO of the largest EV-maker in the world. “You should start a Go Fund,” one user took a jibe. Another remarked, “When the richest person in the world is tweeting about his pay being $0 is the mark of doing something for the commoners, you know the rich are completely disillusioned from reality.” Yet another user remarked on the court ruling, “I don’t get it, how can a judge just go against the will of shareholders? This is literal tyranny.”
You should start a go fund me or maybe be a social media influencer so you can buy more TSLA.
— Jeremy Judkins (@jeremyjudkins_) June 2, 2025
you know the rich are completely disillusioned from reality.
The guy doesn’t get it.
— Urban Wolf (@the_UrbanWolf) June 2, 2025
I don’t get it, how can a judge just go against the will of shareholders? This is literal tyranny!
— Space Sudoer (@spacesudoer) June 2, 2025
See Also: Tesla’s New CFO Has a Bigger Paycheck Than Google’s Pichai and Microsoft’s Nadella
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See Also: L&T Chairman Who Advocated 90-Hour Work-Week Has A Staggering Salary That’s 500 Times His Employees
Cover: Patrick Gawande / Mashable India
