Elon Musk’s Tesla pay package is unprecedented. Here are the 11 other largest CEO payouts ever

On Monday, Tesla’s board approved a stock award worth around $29 billion for Elon Musk, granting the controversial CEO 96 million restricted shares under the company’s long-term incentive plan. 

The pay is designed to keep Musk tethered to Tesla while the company fights to reinstate his original $56 billion compensation package — the one a Delaware judge voided earlier this year for being negotiated by a board that “did not act in the best interests of the company,” and was effectively beholden to Musk. The re-vote that followed passed easily — but that case is still on appeal. The package, which cements Musk's control over the company he founded, is astounding in size, again making him the highest-paid CEO in history.

"It’s not just the size of the compensation that is unprecedented, it’s that the board is acting in a way that allows this," said Harry Kraemer, clinical professor of leadership at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Business and the former CEO of healthcare company Baxter International. He believes the board is operating "very poorly."

"You pay a CEO to do the job — and to do that job 100% of the time. The fact that Elon Musk is running SpaceX and buying Twitter and doing all the things he was doing in Washington — if I was on that board, I would want 100% of his working hours to be on that company," Kraemer said.

And while Musk's award is the largest-ever, plenty of CEOs have enjoyed salaries in the hundreds of millions — or more.

"When you look at executive compensation and the difference in pay between a CEO and their average employee ... it has grown astronomically out of balance in recent years," Kraemer said. "But the flip side is, in a free market capitalistic system, to get the person you need, you have to pay them a lot more. And this can be justified with these pay packages being tied to stock options." In many cases, he said, CEOs make huge amounts because company stocks are doing well and shareholders are pleased.

Using data provided by Equilar, we've compiled a list of the 11 largest awarded CEO pay packages based on summary compensation table figures. The numbers exclude Musk's most recent pay package and stem from grant date values, so they aren't adjusted for inflation.

Continue reading to see who made the list.

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As CEO of Qualtrics in 2021, Serafin earned over half a billion dollars in total compensation, following the company’s IPO and strong growth in the customer experience software space.

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In 2021, Bae, co-CEO of private equity firm KKR, received a major pay package reflecting both firm performance and his transition into a larger leadership role.

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Lucid Motors awarded Rawlinson a hefty package in 2021 after the EV startup went public via SPAC and sought to compete with Tesla in the luxury EV space.

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Snap’s CEO took home this sizable compensation in 2017, much of it tied to stock grants around the company’s IPO and long-term performance goals.

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In 2007, the Blackstone co-founder earned one of his two record-breaking payouts, largely due to the firm’s IPO and his equity stake.

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Robinhood’s CEO was awarded a massive 2021 package after the company’s IPO and a dramatic year of market activity and retail investor surges.

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As head of ad-tech company The Trade Desk, Green’s 2021 compensation reflected performance-based equity awards as the firm grew rapidly.

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Och received this near-billion-dollar package in 2008 when he led hedge fund Sculptor Capital Management, then Off-Ziff, during a volatile financial period.

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Palantir’s co-founder and CEO secured a billion-dollar payday in 2020.

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Schwarzman appears again with a $1.39 billion payout in 2008 — one of the largest ever — during a high-performing year for Blackstone despite market turmoil.

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Topping the list, Musk’s 2018 Tesla package was the largest ever awarded until the announcement of his most recent payout.