Elon Musk is expected to receive opportunities worth $15 billion

The Tesla founder's massive bonus comes at an ideal time for him as he moves forward with his hostile $43 billion bid to acquire Twitter.

Following Tesla's announcement of record revenue also profits for the first quarter of 2022 on Wednesday, 16.9 million of CEO Elon Musk's options worth $15.3 billion are expected to vest-the remainder of his lucrative 2018 performance award. Musk can earn up to 2 tranches of Tesla options from this award each quarter if Tesla meets specific revenue, earnings, also stock price targets.

Musk will have to pay $70.01 per share to exercise these Tesla options, which is less than 10% of the company's all closing stock price of $977.20 per share on Wednesday. While the cash-strapped Musk will be required to hold onto those shares for the next five years, he's likely earned himself some more borrowing power, as a Tesla policy allows him to pledge his stock like collateral for loans up to 25% of the shares' value. Including the new options that are likely to vest, Musk has already pledged more than half of his 21 percent stake in Tesla as collateral for loans-some of which were taken out when the shares were worth much less.

Musk's 2018 performance award originally included 101.3 million options divided into 12 tranches, with up to two tranches vesting each quarter based on Tesla's simultaneous achievement of two sets of milestones: one tied to the company's market capitalization and another to annualized revenue or annualized adjusted EBITDA.

Each subsequent tranche was tied to a $50 billion increase above that initial level (for Musk's award, Tesla's market cap is measured on a six-month basis and 30-day trailing average).

Tesla and Musk have been gradually ticking off annualized revenue and adjusted EBITDA milestones since 2020, with two tranches remaining unvested after the company reported annualized adjusted EBITDA of more than $10 billion in the fourth quarter 2021.

Those final tranches will most likely vest after the company reports annualized revenue of more than $55 billion and annualized adjusted EBITDA of more than $12 billion for the first quarter of 2022. But, first, after the company's quarterly report is filed with the SEC, the Tesla board must officially certify the result. If these options vest on Wednesday, Musk's net worth would rise to $278.2 billion, up from an estimated $262.9 billion at the market's close.