Tesla: Elon Musk qualifies for $770 million compensation

May 29 (UPI) -- Tesla announced in its Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that founder Elon Musk has qualified for a compensation package worth some $770 million after the company reached certain growth goals.

The package, which was adopted in 2018, does not award Musk, who is also the founder of SpaceX, a salary but tied his compensation to the company's financial performance. It was not clear in the filing if Musk exercised the option.

"While our stockholders benefit from each incremental increase in Tesla's performance and stock price, aligning their interests with Mr. Musk's incentives, the tranches under the 2018 CEO Performance Award vest only upon the full achievement of specific milestones, making it even more challenging for Mr. Musk to realize value from such increases," Tesla said in the filing.

"As of the date of this proxy statement, one of the 12 tranches under this award has vested and become exercisable, subject to Mr. Musk's payment of the exercise price of $350.02 per share and the minimum five-year holding period generally applicable to any shares he acquires upon exercise," the statement said.

As the start of this year, Musk owned 20.8 percent of Tesla stock, worth more than $31 billion Thursday. He obtained his newest stock option after Tesla reached $20 billion in annual revenue, $100 billion in market capitalization and $1.5 billion in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Stockholder Richard Tornetta has called Musk's compensation package "excessive" and had filed a lawsuit against him and board members over it in 2018.

Meanwhile, Musk's SpaceX is poised to launch two U.S. astronauts into space this weekend in a historic mission with NASA.