Key Points
- Tesla’s board chair is warning that Elon Musk could leave the company if his new pay package is not approved.
- The package, potentially worth nearly $1 trillion, is facing strong opposition from shareholder advisory groups.
- The board argues that Musk is essential for Tesla’s future as it pivots to AI and robotics.
- Musk says the deal is about gaining more voting control over the company, not about the money.
Tesla’s board chair, Robyn Denholm, has issued a stark warning to shareholders: approve Elon Musk’s massive, near-trillion-dollar pay package, or risk him walking away from the company.
“Without Elon, Tesla could lose significant value,” Denholm wrote in a letter to shareholders on Monday.
The vote on the controversial pay plan is set for November 6, and it’s facing growing opposition. The world’s biggest proxy advisory firm, Institutional Shareholder Services, has recommended voting against the “astronomical” package. A coalition of unions and corporate watchdogs has also launched a campaign to block the deal, citing Musk’s increasingly divisive political views and the damage they’ve done to the Tesla brand.
But Denholm argues that Musk is essential for Tesla’s future. She says the company is at an “important inflection point” as it shifts its focus from just being a car company to being a leader in AI, self-driving technology, and robotics.
The proposed pay package is tied to a series of incredibly ambitious goals, including growing the company’s market cap to a staggering $8.5 trillion and delivering millions of cars, robots, and robotaxis. If he hits all the targets, the deal would give Musk an additional 423 million shares, increasing his stake in the company to about 25%.
Musk himself has said the deal is not about the money but about having “enough influence over Tesla” to ensure the safe development of its future technologies, especially its “robot army.”
