FILE – Tesla CEO Elon Musk leaves the Tesla Gigafactory for electric cars after a visit in Gruenheide near Berlin, Germany, March 13, 2024. If Tesla shareholders vote against restoring Elon Musk’s $44.9 billion pay package that was tossed out by a Delaware judge, the CEO could deliver on threats to take artificial intelligence research to another firm, or even leave Tesla.
But at the company’s annual meeting Thursday in Austin, Texas, Musk reassured shareholders that he will stick around, telling them he can’t sell any stock in the compensation package for five years.Vote totals on Musk’s pay weren’t immediately announced at Tesla’s annual stockholders’ meeting, but the company said shareholders voted for Musk’s compensation plan, which initially was approved by the board and stockholders six years ago.
“Its incredible,” a jubilant Musk told the crowd gathered at Tesla’s headquarters and large factory in Austin, Texas. “I think we’re not just opening a new chapter for Tesla, we’re starting a new book.” McCormick’s ruling essentially made the 2018 compensation package a gift to Musk, Elson said, and that would need unanimous shareholder approval, an impossible threshold. The vote, he said, is interesting from a public perception standpoint, but “in my view it does not affect the ruling.”
“Full Self-Driving” keeps improving with new versions, and there’s no question it will exceed the safety of human drivers, Musk said without giving a time frame.