According to Sawyer Merritt on Twitter, Elon Musk's compensation at Tesla is structured so that he must achieve both market capitalization milestones and operational milestones to unlock each tranche of rewards, ensuring that executive incentives are directly tied to company and shareholder success (source: Sawyer Merritt via Twitter). This creates a strong alignment of interests that benefits shareholders, particularly in the context of Tesla’s AI-driven initiatives like autonomous driving and AI robotics, where operational performance is crucial for value creation. For AI industry stakeholders, this compensation model highlights the increasing importance of measurable AI business outcomes and market capitalization as key drivers for executive rewards.