More than two months ago, Tesla released its fourth Master Plan. This document outlined the company’s vision for spreading sustainable abundance through its future products. However, specific details remain absent. Despite this lack of information, Tesla has made the plan a central part of its campaign to convince shareholders to approve a new compensation package for CEO Elon Musk at the upcoming annual meeting.
This proposed package is valued at one trillion dollars. If approved, it would be the largest pay package in corporate history for the world’s richest man. When the plan was first published, its vague nature drew criticism from some of Tesla’s biggest supporters. Elon Musk acknowledged this criticism was fair and promised that Tesla would add more specifics. The original post, however, remains unchanged.
Musk has stated he is less concerned about the money and more about retaining control over Tesla. He has expressed a desire to build a robot army and has threatened to leave the company if the shareholders do not approve the vote.
Master Plan IV stands in stark contrast to the company’s previous master plans. Each of those earlier documents included concrete goals and tangible ideas, though some objectives were so ambitious that Tesla has yet to accomplish them. The third Master Plan, released in 2023, was a forty-one page white paper focused on creating a sustainable energy economy.
Musk first teased the fourth Master Plan in June of 2024, calling it epic. Later, he commented that Master Plan 3 was too complex for most people to understand and promised that Master Plan 4 would be concise. Tesla published the plan just a few days after that statement.
Despite its imprecision, Tesla has promoted the fourth Master Plan in nearly all its communications to shareholders about the vote. It is highlighted in the voting instructions sent to investors. It received a mention in Tesla’s third-quarter shareholder letter. The plan has also been referenced in interviews by board chair Robyn Denholm and design leader Franz von Holzhausen.
In a September letter to shareholders, Denholm and fellow board member Kathleen Wilson-Thompson called Master Plan IV an inspiring next chapter focused on creating sustainable abundance. They stated it would reimagine labor, mobility, and energy by bringing artificial intelligence into the physical world through products like Full Self-Driving, Optimus, and Robotaxi. They did not provide further specifics.
Denholm has been actively promoting the trillion-dollar pay package but has not been pressed to provide a clearer vision for the fourth Master Plan. Her focus has remained on the milestones Musk must achieve to unlock the full compensation, which are largely seen as watered-down versions of his past ambitious promises.
Musk himself has not mentioned Master Plan IV on his social media platform since his promise to add details. In the days leading up to the shareholder vote, he has instead focused on promoting the compensation package and commenting on other political matters.
The vagueness of the plan was directly addressed during an October podcast interview with design leader Franz von Holzhausen. The host noted that the initial reaction from the Tesla community was that the plan seemed to lack details compared to previous, more concrete versions. When asked why he was excited about the plan and how Tesla would achieve it, von Holzhausen responded by saying the company would do it in Tesla fashion.