An analysis conducted by Equilar, a renowned expert in compensation and corporate governance, reveals that Tesla's board members have amassed gains exceeding $3 billion through stock awards. This figure puts them far ahead of their counterparts on the boards of other major U.S. tech behemoths over the same timeframe.

Among the beneficiaries, Kimbal Musk, the brother of Elon Musk, has pocketed nearly $1 billion since 2004. Ira Ehrenpreis, another board director, has seen his coffers swell by $869 million since 2007. Meanwhile, Robyn Denholm, the chair of the board, has enjoyed gains totaling $650 million since 2014.

It's worth noting that no fresh stock awards have been bestowed upon Tesla's board since 2020. Moreover, director compensation was put on hold starting in 2021. Nevertheless, during the period from 2018 to 2020, the average compensation for Tesla directors was roughly eight times that of their peers at Alphabet. Alphabet ranked second among the so-called "Magnificent Seven" tech companies during that time.

Even when taking into account the four-year suspension period from 2021 to 2024, the average compensation for Tesla directors between 2018 and 2024 still stands at 2.5 times that of directors at Meta. Meta had the second-highest compensation among the tech giants during the same period.

Tesla's approach of compensating its directors with stock options is somewhat of an outlier in the corporate world. This practice has not gone unnoticed and has drawn flak from some corporate governance experts.