The shareholder vote doesn’t immediately restore Musk’s compensation, but it sends a strong message that the deal has broad support among Tesla investors. In the months leading up to the vote, investors big and small were divided on whether to back the deal. Some major shareholders criticized Musk as a distracted leader who didn’t deserve such a payday, while others hailed him as a generational genius.
“Our answer is clear, loud and unequivocal: Tesla is better with Elon in it. Tesla is Elon,” said Ron Baron, the billionaire Tesla investor, adding that Musk is essential to Tesla and the reward should acknowledge that fact.
Investors and Musk allies, including X CEO Linda Yaccarino, praised the interim results, released late Wednesday. Musk, who remains one of the richest people in the company whether or not he maintains his compensation package, also vowed in a tweet Wednesday night to make Tesla the most valuable company on the planet.
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Musk and a Tesla spokesman did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Wednesday.
“This shows that shareholder votes can matter,” James Park, a professor at UCLA Law School who studies securities regulation and corporate law, said this week before the vote. “Sometimes it’s just approving a board recommendation, but this is corporate democracy in action.”
In a January post on X, Mr. Musk warned that he was stepping down from the company before a voided compensation package threatened to further weaken his control, and that he would develop future technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence “outside of Tesla.” Such a future was a daunting prospect for an electric-car maker reeling from slumping sales, global competition and mass layoffs.
Ahead of Thursday’s meeting, several major investors announced their positions, but others remained silent, and the outcome remained unclear until Musk’s X post late Wednesday night. Tesla’s major investors, Vanguard Group, BlackRock and State Street, which collectively own about 17% of Tesla shares, have not publicly stated their positions. None responded to requests for comment Wednesday night.
The full results of the vote are expected to be revealed at Tesla’s shareholder meeting in Austin on Thursday. In his post, Musk suggested the number of votes in favor of restoring the bonuses had exceeded the threshold needed to guarantee him a victory.
Following the Delaware Chancery Court ruling in January, Musk launched a fierce attack on the state where Tesla and many other companies are incorporated.
“Do not incorporate in Delaware,” he wrote in his post, before announcing his decision to hold a shareholder vote on whether to incorporate in Texas instead. In a post on Wednesday, Musk said shareholders had also approved Tesla incorporating in Texas.
