Tesla Stock Milestone Gives Elon Musk Record $706 Million Payday

It’s the biggest executive payout in U.S. history.

Elon Musk is set to claim one hell of a payday. And it’s just in time to ensure he can feed lots of gold-flecked caviar to the baby he just had with girlfriend Grimes. That baby, named  X Æ A-12 Musk (a.k.a. Unpronounceable), is now heir to an additional $706 million.

The massive payout is on top of the estimated $39 billion that the 48-year-old Tesla CEO already has. 

The AP reports how Tesla’s stock value turned into a remarkable payday for Musk:

The electric car maker ended Wednesday with an average market value of $100.4 billion for the past six months, according to data drawn from FactSet Research.

That was the final hurdle that Tesla needed to clear for Musk to receive nearly 1.69 million stock options priced at $350.02. Tesla’s stock closed at $782.58 Wednesday, translating into a pre-tax gain of about $730 million if Musk were able to exercise them immediately.

Musk shouldn’t show up with a fleet of armored Tesla Cybertrucks to haul away all his money yet, though. According to the Associated Press, he “can’t sell the newly awarded stock for at least five years after he receives the options, according to the company’s most recent quarterly report.”

In the meantime, there’s a chance he and Grimes may need to reconsider their child’s name, which the indie pop singer attempted to explain in a cryptic tweet.

 Grimes wrote:

•X, the unknown variable
•Æ, my elven spelling of Ai (love &/or Artificial intelligence)
•A-12 = precursor to SR-17 (our favorite aircraft). No weapons, no defenses, just speed. Great in battle, but non-violent
+
(A=Archangel, my favorite song)
( metal rat)

Musk later corrected her via tweet, noting that the aircraft is actually an SR-71. Naturally, Grimes didn’t seem to appreciate her billionaire boyfriend pulling a “well, actually” after she’d just given birth to their child.

Business Insider provided a helpful pronunciation guide for X Æ A-12: “One person guessed that the name was actually “X Ash Archangel,” which Musk liked on Twitter.” 

Grimes clouded the waters a bit by writing on Instagram that “it’s just X, like the letter X. Then A.I. Like how you said the letter A then I.”

And Musk himself pronounced it on a new episode of The Joe Rogan Experience here:

Musk and Grimes may need reconsider their new baby’s name not because no one knows how to say it, but because it might be “illegal” in the state of California, which has a law requiring names be spelled with just the 26 letters in the English alphabet. 

Given that Musk is already sitting on about $39 billion, according to Forbes, it seems like he’ll be fine with waiting on his next mountain of money. He may, however, want to put a rush on coming up with alternate names for his kid.