Most of us, when we’re negotiating for a pay rise, would generally be happy if we walked away with a 10 per cent salary bump – but Elon Musk is not most of us.

On Thursday, he convinced the shareholders of Tesla to award him a pay package that could triple his net worth. That would be an amazing compensation deal for anyone, but given Musk is already worth $500bn (£381bn), it amounts to a CEO pay package of $1trn (£760bn). It is the kind of deal that looks like a typo – or else insanity.

Musk’s reasoning for why he needed such a generous deal to remain as Tesla’s CEO was that it wasn’t about the money, but instead about control of the company. Most of Musk’s pay would not come in cash, but as more stock in Tesla.

If Musk was going to be motivated to stay on as Tesla CEO and concentrate his efforts there, he needed enough shares to control at least a quarter of the company, he said. This deal gives him that, if Tesla hits the appropriate targets.

The issue here is that........

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