Tesla Inc. investors have overwhelmingly approved Elon Musk’s $1 trillion compensation package, a record-setting deal that cements the billionaire’s grip over the electric-vehicle maker and signals renewed confidence in his leadership.
Roughly 75% of votes cast supported the package at the company’s annual meeting on Thursday at its Texas gigafactory, according to chair Robyn Denholm.
The vote marks a stunning endorsement for Musk after months of backlash from governance advocates, proxy advisers, and some large institutions.
The deal, structured entirely through equity awards rather than salary or bonus, could boost Musk’s ownership stake by as much as 12% if Tesla meets a series of lofty long-term benchmarks.
Ambitious goals tied to payout
To unlock the full $1 trillion, Musk must drive Tesla’s valuation sixfold to $8.5 trillion, lift annual earnings 24 times to $400 billion, and scale new businesses in robotics and self-driving technology.
While those hurdles appear near impossible today, supporters say they are aligned with Tesla’s ambition to dominate the next decade of industrial automation and artificial intelligence.
“Musk has proven time and again that he can achieve the improbable,” Denholm told shareholders. She argued that keeping Musk fully engaged was vital as Tesla moves beyond cars into humanoid robots and advanced AI models.
Backing from high-profile investors including Ron Baron and Cathie Wood highlighted the optimism surrounding Musk’s leadership. “The payoff may look extreme,” Baron said in a recent note, “but so are the results Tesla has delivered under Musk’s vision.”
Dissent from major institutions
Not everyone was convinced. Norway’s $2.1 trillion sovereign wealth fund, Tesla’s seventh-largest shareholder with a 1.1% stake, opposed the plan, citing concerns about “the total size of the award, dilution, and lack of mitigation of key person risk.”
The fund joined proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, both of which urged investors to vote no.
They criticised the package’s “striking magnitude” and the absence of guardrails to ensure Musk devotes sufficient attention to Tesla amid his growing commitments at companies including SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and xAI.
Still, Musk’s threat to walk away if shareholders rejected the proposal weighed heavily on the debate. His personal involvement has long been viewed as critical to Tesla’s valuation and its cult-like investor following.
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