Tesla founder Elon Musk may be richest person by April

NEW YORK: Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk has a lucrative pay package with the potential of making him the richest person in the world by mid-April, if the electric vehicle maker continues to grow at its current rate.

Musk, who doesn’t get a paycheck or cash bonuses, instead gets options that vest based on Tesla’s market capitalisation and achieving milestones for growth. The EV manufacturer has already met several financial targets that Musk needs, and he currently stands to get options to buy 1.7 million shares of Tesla stock once the company has achieved a $100 billion market value over a six-month period.

Since Tesla crossed the $100 billion threshold on Jan. 22 - and has stayed there ever since - Musk's big pay day would be expected to arrive by the middle of April. All he needs is for the average price of Tesla stock to stay at Wednesday's closing price of $767.29 for the next several months, and the stock could achieve an average value of $100 billion over the six-month period.

For Musk's tranches to vest under the terms of a 2018 pay package, the company's market cap would have to continue to sustainably rise by $50 billion increments over the agreement's 10-year period. The billionaire would earn the full package if Tesla's market capitalization reaches $650 billion.

Tesla on Thursday had a market cap valued at about $132.66 billion, according to YCharts. That makes Tesla the second most valuable car company in the world after Toyota. Musk currently is the 25th richest person in the world, with a total net worth of $41.5billion, behind Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos, who has a net worth of $42.9billion, according to Bloomberg. Jeff Bezos, meanwhile, holds the top spot with $132 billion.