Tesla’s board has pro­posed a new pay pack­age for chief exec­ut­ive Elon Musk worth $1tn over the next dec­ade if he is hits a series of for­mid­able tar­gets.

Musk will receive no salary or bonus under the plan unveiled yes­ter­day, but would col­lect shares in instal­ments unlocked by increases in Tesla’s mar­ket value, along­side mile­stones includ­ing a huge increase in earn­ings and selling mil­lions of cars, robo­taxis and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence-powered robots.

“Retain­ing and incentiv­ising Elon is fun­da­mental to Tesla . . . becom­ing the most valu­able com­pany in his­tory,” chair Robyn Den­holm wrote to investors, adding it would “drive peak per­form­ance from our vis­ion­ary leader”.

The board stressed that Musk’s incent­ives were aligned with investors’ interests and he will receive noth­ing if Tesla’s growth stalls. But the scale of the pack­age is likely to revive a fierce debate over the earn­ings of the world’s richest man.