Overview

• In his first extended interview, Pope Leo XIV decried extreme wealth concentration and cited reports that Elon Musk could become the first trillionaire, noting CEO pay has grown to roughly 600 times that of the average worker.
• Sen. Bernie Sanders echoed the pope’s warning and called Musk’s prospective payout “grossly immoral,” urging that the package be rejected.
• Musk responded on X by quoting Matthew 7:3–5 and highlighted posts about Vatican wealth in a pointed rejoinder to the pontiff.
• Tesla’s proposed compensation would grant Musk up to about 423.7 million shares over ten years and could be worth around $1 trillion if all performance goals are achieved.
• Reported targets include reaching roughly an $8.5 trillion market value by 2035, sustaining about $400 billion in adjusted EBITDA, and deploying 1 million robotaxis and 1 million Optimus robots, with board chair Robyn Denholm defending the plan as designed to motivate exceptional outcomes.