Elon Musk's security bill keeps on rising
The cost of keeping Elon Musk safe has quietly become one of the most extraordinary corporate expenditures in modern history. According to recent financial disclosures filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla’s board of directors approved a staggering $2.6 billion in security services for its CEO over the past three fiscal years. That’s roughly $2.4 million per day, a figure that outstrips the entire security budgets of many Fortune 500 companies and rivals the protective apparatus of a mid-sized nation’s head of state.
But here’s the part that makes investors bite their lips: the bill isn’t slowing down. In fact, it’s accelerating. The latest filings indicate that Tesla expects to spend an additional $500 million on Musk’s personal security for the current fiscal year alone. That’s a 25% jump from the previous year’s outlay, and it includes everything from armored vehicle fleets to round-the-clock bodyguard details, drone monitoring systems, and specialized threat assessment teams.
Why is the security bill skyrocketing?
To understand the ballooning costs, you have to look at the unique risk profile Musk presents. He is not merely a CEO; he is a cultural lightning rod. Since acquiring Twitter (now X) in 2022, Musk has positioned himself at the center of political and social firestorms. His public statements on immigration, free speech, and international conflicts have drawn threats from extremist groups on both the far left and far right. The FBI has confirmed it is tracking multiple credible plots against him, including one in 2023 involving a stalker who attempted to break into his Austin, Texas, home with a firearm.
Then there’s the physical footprint. Musk oversees six companies—Tesla, SpaceX, X, Neuralink, The Boring Company, and xAI—scattered across three continents. His security detail must coordinate movements between factories in Shanghai, launch pads in Boca Chica, Texas, and offices in Palo Alto, California. Each location requires its own threat assessment, local law enforcement liaisons, and evacuation protocols. One insider at Tesla’s security division, speaking on condition of anonymity, described it as “running a small private military operation, but with the added complexity of dealing with paparazzi drones and online doxxing campaigns.”
Add to that the fact that Musk has publicly refused to use bulletproof vehicles or travel in a traditional motorcade unless absolutely necessary—a stance that his security team reportedly fought hard to override. After a 2024 incident in which a suspicious package was found near his private jet at an airport in Southern California, the team finally convinced him to accept a permanent armored convoy. That single decision added roughly $40 million to the annual security budget.
Who pays for all this?
Here’s where things get legally fuzzy. Tesla, as a publicly traded company, is obligated to cover “reasonable” security expenses for its CEO. But what constitutes “reasonable” when the CEO is also the chief engineer, the face of the brand, and arguably the most targeted private individual on the planet? Tesla’s board has consistently argued that Musk’s security is a business necessity. Without it, they claim, his life would be in constant jeopardy, and the company’s value would crater.
Shareholders, however, are starting to grumble. A 2025 proxy advisory report from Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) flagged the security spending as “excessive” and recommended a vote on a non-binding proposal to cap CEO security costs at 0.5% of total revenue. Tesla’s current security spending is roughly 0.8% of its $98 billion in revenue—a small fraction, but a growing one. The proposal failed, but the fact that it was raised signals a shift in sentiment. “It’s not that we don’t want him safe,” one institutional investor told me. “It’s that the costs are rising faster than our returns, and there’s no oversight mechanism.”
Musk, for his part, has defended the spending in typical fashion. On X, he posted: “Better to spend $500M on security than $0 on a funeral. My life is a target. Deal with it.” He also noted that he pays for some security out of his own pocket, though he did not specify how much. According to the SEC filings, Tesla reimburses Musk for “bona fide security services” while Musk covers any “personal, non-business” security expenses—a distinction that auditors have found difficult to verify.
The human cost behind the numbers
Behind the eye-watering dollar figures, there’s a human story that rarely gets told. The men and women who guard Musk work 12- to 14-hour shifts, often sleeping in shifts at his properties. They undergo psychological screening and weapons training that rivals federal law enforcement. Turnover is high. One former guard described the job as “equal parts adrenaline and boredom—you’re either staring at a blank wall for hours or sprinting through an airport because someone posted his flight path online.”
There’s also the psychological toll on Musk himself. Friends say he rarely goes out in public without a visible security presence, and even private dinners with family are now monitored by drones and counter-surveillance teams. “He lives in a bubble,” one associate told me. “A very expensive, very heavily armed bubble.”
As the security bill continues to rise, one question lingers: At what point does the cost of protecting the CEO exceed the value he brings? For now, Tesla’s board is betting that Musk is worth every penny—and then some. But with each passing quarter, that bet gets a little more expensive.
Ahmed Abed – News journalist