Tesla’s 2024 shareholder meeting: all the news about Elon Musk’s $50 billion payday

Tesla’s 2024 shareholder meeting is a bit different than meetings past. Investors are being asked to weigh in on the question of Elon Musk’s massive pay package, which is estimated to be as high as $50 billion.

But it isn’t the first time shareholders have voted on whether to approve Musk’s unusual compensation package. Earlier this year, a Delaware court judge voided his $56 billion pay in response to a shareholder lawsuit.

Shareholders will also vote on proposals to move Tesla’s legal home from Delaware to Texas and to reappoint two board members: James Murdoch and Kimbal Musk, Elon’s brother.

The vote is widely seen as a referendum on Musk’s tumultuous leadership at Tesla. Retail investors widely support Musk, while some institutional shareholders have said they would oppose the plan, calling it excessive.

Musk has threatened to remove Tesla’s work on AI and robotics if he doesn’t receive a larger share of the company’s stock. And Tesla’s board has implied that he could leave the company altogether if the pay package isn’t approved.

The Tesla Network, reborn.

“It will be like an Airbnb thing. You can add or subtract your car to the fleet whenever you want. So you can say, like, I’m going away for a week at just one tap on your Tesla app, your car gets added to the fleet and it just makes money for you while you’re gone.”

The company has previously teased this capability in the Tesla app.
‘We’re not just opening a new chapter for Tesla. We’re starting a new book.’

I get the feeling we’re going to get a lot of statements like this. He starts out talking about energy storage, sustainability, and then shifts to autonomy. He repeats his claim that most people don’t understand what Tesla is working on. And he adds a dig at people who live in New York who don’t drive cars. As a transit rider, I’ll try to keep my opinions to myself.
Musk takes the stage, victorious.

He jumps in the air with both arms raised. He is clearly in a good mood. “I just want to start off by saying, hot damn, I love you guys.”
Elon wins.

Tesla is moving to Texas. Kimbal Musk and James Murdoch have been reappointed to the board. And, of course, Elon Musk has won re-approval for his massive $50 billion pay package.
We’re hearing proposals about electromagnetic harms and sustainability measures.

Both proposals are opposed by the board and are unlikely to be adopted. But I’ll say it again, the annual shareholder meeting is one of the few Tesla events where outside, competing voices pierce the bubble.
An anti-harassment provision is proposed.

This is a timely one, considering all the allegations that have been leveled at Tesla over the years regarding racism, gender discrimination, retaliation, and harassment. It won’t succeed, but its still striking to hear it all detailed by a shareholder at an extremely Musk-friendly event.
‘Tesla scores a dismal 10 in shareholder rights.’

Another shareholder is excoriating Tesla’s board as lacking sufficient independence from Musk. “I believe the Tesla board of directors is the most conflicted, least independent, and most incapable board of directors in the history of business,” the shareholder says in a prepared statement. Tesla’s board recommends against his proposal too.
A Tesla shareholder warns about Musk’s wandering attention.

James McRitchie is presenting a proposal that is opposed by Tesla’s board. “The Musk premium is already eroding,” he said. “Tesla is Musk’s liquid piggy bank. Since it’s publicly traded, his other companies are not either. He sticks around long enough to use our shareholder capital to fund his other ventures, or he shifts his attention sooner if we reject his pay package, and turn off a money tap.”
Tesla’s board: highly engaged.

Denholm defends the board, which has been accused by Delaware court as too chummy with Musk, as taking its fiduciary duties seriously. “With those responsibilities in mind, we continuously set the highest standards for ethical behavior, corporate citizenship and corporate governance.”
Sustainability is at the forefront.

Prior to the votes on Musk’s pay package or the reincorporation in Texas, Denholm is touting Tesla’s sustainability and safety bonafides. She said that the company recovered enough battery materials to build 43,000 RWD Model Ys. On safety, she claims that Tesla vehicles with driver assist technologies engaged “have only a one vehicle accident per 5.64 million miles driven compared to the US.”
Tesla’s 2024 shareholder meeting is underway.

On time, too, which is rare for a Tesla event. Tesla board Robyn Denholm is up first, talking about the company’s wins for 2023-2024, including the Model Y becoming the best-selling vehicle in the world, and the release of the Cybertruck.
Elon Musk’s $50 billion pay day is nigh.

The Tesla CEO appears heading to victory in today’s shareholder vote over his enormous pay package. Musk posted two graphs on X last night which showed both proposals — the one of his compensation, and the other on reincorporating Tesla in Texas — ahead by wide margins. But the results aren’t final yet, and things could still go pear-shaped. After all, this is Tesla we’re talking about. Tune in at 3:30 pm CT if you want to watch Musk dive into a pile of cash, Scrooge McDuck-style.
Tesla’s $50 billion question comes down to the wire

Illustration: Lille Allen / The Verge

On Thursday, Tesla shareholders will face a stark choice: approve Elon Musk’s enormous pay package, the largest ever awarded to a chief executive, or risk him picking up his ball and going home.

The shareholder meeting on Thursday is a referendum on Musk’s tumultuous leadership, in which he took a relatively niche startup, wrested it away from its founders, and turned it into what is arguably one of the most consequential car companies in modern history. To reward him for this feat, shareholders are being asked to cast an unprecedented vote on Musk’s compensation — to the tune of $50 billion — for the second time. And in a post on X late Wednesday, Musk said the vote was close to approval.

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Tesla on trial

Laura Normand / The Verge

As if he doesn’t have enough going on, Elon Musk will find himself in court later this week defending his $56 billion pay package from allegations by Tesla shareholders that it was rigged with easy performance targets.

And that’s not all! On Tuesday in Los Angeles, a Tesla Model S owner is on trial for manslaughter in a case that experts are calling it a first-of-its-kind legal test of the responsibility of a human driver in a car with advanced driver-assist technology like Tesla’s Autopilot.

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Tesla becomes most valuable automaker as more workers contract COVID-19

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Tesla’s stock price hit $1,000 for the first time on Wednesday, meaning the Silicon Valley company has now passed Toyota in market capitalization and is the most valuable automaker in the world by that metric.

This comes as at least six Tesla employees have tested positive for COVID-19 in California since CEO Elon Musk reopened the company’s facilities there last month — initially in violation of stay-home orders, and then with the blessing of local officials — according to new reports from The Washington Post and Electrek. An employee at Tesla’s Buffalo, New York solar panel factory also tested positive for COVID-19 after that facility reopened, as The Verge previously reported.

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Tesla stakes Elon Musk’s salary on plan to become bigger than Amazon

Photo by Mark Brake/Getty Images

Tesla has announced a new compensation plan for Elon Musk: he’ll only get paid if he reaches certain exorbitant milestones, including a Tesla market valuation of $650 billion.

The company’s market valuation goals start at $100 billion and go up in $50 billion increments. (They climb to $150 billion, and so on until the $650 billion mark.) Tesla has a dozen market valuation goals and a dozen revenue and adjusted profit targets. The profit goals are designed to ensure that the company is “also executing well on both a top-line and bottom-line basis” as the company grows in valuation.

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