Elon Musk might well be the richest man in the world by a considerable margin, but his own brother has made the shocking claim that he hasn't received any salary for his role as Tesla CEO since 2017.
With an estimated net worth of $379 billion – nearly $100 billion more than the next highest on the list – it would be the understatement of the century to say that Elon Musk has a lot of money at his disposal.
While he has been among the richest individuals in the world for some time now, it is especially in recent years that he has been able to cement his name at the top of the list due to the success of Tesla, SpaceX, and now xAI — his own artificial intelligence company powering Grok.
You'd be forgiven for presuming that holding that much power and influence would command a salary bigger than pretty much everyone else on Earth, yet Musk's own brother Kimbal has revealed that the billionaire doesn't earn a penny in salary, at least from Tesla in the past eight years.
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What has Elon's brother said about his salary?
As reported by the Financial Express, Kimbal Musk revealed to CNBC's Squawk Box that Musk has received 'zero pay' from Tesla in the best part of a decade.
"I think my brother deserves to be paid. He has zero pay for the past six to eight years," Kimbal claimed. "I don't think that's right. I'll let Tesla shareholders make that decision, but I believe that it does need to be. He needs to be paid."
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For most people this would be a life-altering turn of events, yet it's not exactly unfair to presume that Elon probably has more than enough to get by — although child support for 14 kids must eat into his monthly budget!
Does Elon Musk really not earn a salary from Tesla?
The answer to whether Elon Musk gets paid by Tesla is both yes and no, as while it's true that he doesn't receive a salary in the traditional sense, he is indeed compensated in different ways that more than make up for it.
For example, he's currently in a legal battle to claim the world's largest ever compensation package worth around $56 billion, although this 'reduced' to just $29 billion after being struck down by a judge despite Tesla shareholders voting to have it reinstated.
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Additionally, Musk currently owns around 12% of Tesla's total stock, which based on the 3.23 billion outstanding shares is worth around $131,415,780,000 or roughly a third of his total net worth.
It's the same reason why he was able to forgo a salary from his role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency, as the power and influence that comes with the position more than makes up for the financial compensation, especially when he's not lacking for funds elsewhere.