Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world's richest man, in the final quarter-end meeting with investors, called on shareholders to approve the largest CEO compensation in history - worth about $1 trillion in Tesla stock - at the upcoming annual meeting. Musk said he fears being forced out of the company and needs the additional shareholder control to be comfortable working on "building an army of robots."

Details

Musk talked about compensation, even though none of the investors asked him about it. "I just think [I] need enough control of [shareholder] votes to have a strong influence," Musk said, interrupting Tesla's CFO at the end of a 75-minute conference call. - But not so much that I can't be fired if I go crazy."

It was in Musk's spirit: a vivid denouement after a generally calm discussion of AI initiatives, the Optimus robot and robotaxi service, Bloomberg notes. The Tesla CEO didn't miss an opportunity to criticize proxy advisers who urged institutional investors to vote against giving him a $1 trillion package. "I just don't feel comfortable creating an army of robots here, only to lose my post later because of some ridiculous recommendations [to vote against] from ISS and Glass Lewis, who don't think anything of it at all," Musk said.

Shareholders will vote on Musk's compensation package at Tesla's annual meeting on Nov. 6. The company's CFO Vaibhav Taneja, who had previously repeatedly called for a vote in favor of the package, promised at the conclusion of the conference call that Musk would not benefit if he failed to deliver a substantial return to shareholders.

Context

A day before the release of Tesla's quarterly report and Musk's meeting with investors, a coalition of labor unions and advocacy NGOs launched a Take Back Tesla campaign website urging shareholders to vote at the November meeting against Musk's "outrageous" pay package that would bring him nearly $1 trillion in stock and expand his control over the company. The coalition includes the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, the Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) coalition, corporate oversight group Eko, the Federation of American Public Organizations People's Action and environmental group Stop the Money Pipeline, CNBC reported.

For their part, leading proxy advisors ISS and Glass Lewis have also recommended that major shareholders reject Musk's $1 trillion compensation plan, made public amid controversy surrounding Musk's previous $56 billion (value at time of receipt) equity compensation package approved in 2018. Tesla responded by stating that "ISS and Glass Lewis have opposed Tesla's proposals time and time again since the CEO performance-based compensation plan was adopted in 2018." The company added: "It's a good thing our shareholders ignored these recommendations, otherwise they would have missed out on a 20x increase in our market capitalization from March 2018 to August 2025."

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor

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