Mark Zuckerberg’s 9 Trillion Dollar Valuation and Elon Musk’s Spending Spreein Half the Time
By Callum Keown and Anita Hamilton
Updated March 25, 2026, 12:13 pm EDT / Original March 25, 2026, 4:58 am EDT
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pushing his executives harder than Tesla is pushing Elon Musk. (AFP via Getty Images)
META+0.33% is making an aggressive bet in its bid to win the ever-intensifying artificial-intelligence talent race.
The owner of Facebook and Instagram unveiled ambitious executive pay incentives, targeting a $9 trillion market capitalization by 2031. If one looks carefully, its move could be a subtle dig at Tesla
The move comes as Meta also confirmed to Barron’s that it was laying off several hundred workers in its sales, recruiting, and virtual reality divisions Wednesday.
The full value of the stock options, given to six leaders not including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, would only be realized if Meta stock jumps more than 500% to $3,727, according to filings late Tuesday. Meta’s current market cap stands at $1.51 trillion. The move is partly aimed at retaining Meta’s top talent.$2.25trillionMay 17, 2024
$1.20 trillion
“This is a big bet. These pay packages will not be realized unless Meta achieves massive future success, benefiting all of our shareholders,” a Meta spokesman told Barron’s. “As with all stock options, there is only value if the share price meaningfully exceeds the exercise price, and in this case, it must be on an exceedingly aggressive 5-year timeline.”
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Indeed, it is a big bet—even bigger than the one Tesla made.
Tesla shareholders approved a pay package worth up to $1 trillion for Musk if a series of ambitious targets are met over the next decade, including boosting the electric-vehicle maker to an $8.5 trillion valuation.
The timeline for Meta executives to hit their targets is half of Tesla’s—just five years—and requires a bigger jump in valuation. It would require an annualized return of 45% for the shares to reach $3,727 by 2031, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
The stock paired some early gains Wednesday as Meta said it was cutting several hundred jobs as part of a restructuring effort. After rising around 1.2% on its executive pay incentive plan, they were up 0.8%.
Still, that’s a move in the right direction. If the stock advances at that rate every day, Meta would hit its goal well before 2031.
The cuts—which should affect less than 1,000 of the 79,000 employees Meta reported at the end of 2025—include workers in its Reality Labs division, which makes its smart glasses and virtual-reality headsets.
“Teams across Meta regularly restructure or implement changes to ensure they’re in the best position to achieve their goals. Where possible, we are finding other opportunities for employees whose positions may be impacted,” a Meta spokesperson told Barron’s.
The company said earlier this year that it was shifting some resources away from the metaverse. “We’re doubling down on the VR developer ecosystem while shifting the focus of Worlds to be almost exclusively mobile,” Samantha Ryan, VP of Content at Meta Reality Labs, wrote in a blog post in February.
Meta is currently the seventh most valuable company in the U.S., behind Nvidia
NVDA+1.99%, Apple, Alphabet, MicrosoftMSFT-0.46%, Amazon.com, and BroadcomAVGO+0.16%. Tesla, at $1.47 trillion, is in eighth.
The compensation incentive program includes Chief Financial Officer Susan Li, Chief Technology Officer Andrew Bosworth, Chief Operation Officer Javier Olivan, Chief Product Officer Chris Cox, Chief Legal Officer C.J. Mahoney and Vice Chairman Dina Powell McCormick, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Meta is also increasing restricted stock unit (RSU) grants for executive officers. However, Mahoney—who joined Meta in January from rival Microsoft—and former Trump advisor Powell McCormick—also joined the management team at the start of the year—will not receive those RSU grants because they received new hire grants.
Write to Callum Keown at callum.keown@dowjones.com and Anita Hamilton at anita.hamilton@barrons.com
View this Barron’s article CLICK HERE
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