Electric vehicle giant Tesla recently filed an S-8 registration form with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, planning to register a total of 303.96 million shares of common stock under the CEO performance award plan developed for its CEO Elon Musk in 2018.

This stock registration relates to the milestone compensation agreement reached between Musk and the Tesla Board of Directors in 2018. The agreement set out a series of highly challenging performance targets, including market capitalization growth and operational indicators. Musk can only receive this enormous compensation if all the targets are fully met. The documents show that the registered common shares will be specifically used to cash in the performance awards Musk has unlocked. Under the compensation plan approved in 2018, Musk is entitled to receive up to approximately 234 million Tesla stock options in 12 tranches, but only if the company hits a series of strict financial and operational targets.So far, Tesla has achieved several key milestones within the agreement, including ambitious goals such as boosting market capitalization to 650 billion dollars. This entitles Musk to receive corresponding tranches of stock option awards.The submission of this S-8 form marks that Tesla is proceeding according to procedure to officially register these shares that are about to vest. This document is a registration statement required by the SEC, mainly used for securities issuance under employee benefit plans.