Tesla CEO Elon Musk said late Wednesday that the electric car company’s shareholders voted to approve his billion-dollar pay package by “wide margins,” in a post on his social media platform X, ahead of the vote’s outcome.
“Both Tesla shareholder resolutions are currently passing by wide margins!” Musk wrote, citing resolutions to approve his pay package worth as much as $56 billion and a plan to move Tesla’s headquarters from New Castle, Delaware to Austin, Texas.
Official voting results have not yet been released, but Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting is scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
Tesla has been campaigning to convince shareholders to approve Musk’s massive compensation package.
The company said on an annual meeting website that the “future value we want to deliver for you is at risk,” adding: “We need your voice NOW to protect Tesla and your investment.”
Tesla also launched a lottery of sorts in which 15 voting investors would be randomly selected for a tour of Tesla’s Austin factory, personally led by Musk and vehicle designer Franz von Holzhausen.
Shareholders overwhelmingly supported Musk’s compensation plan in March 2018, but that was also the case hit by a Delaware judge in January.
This year’s vote was expected to be closer than 2018’s after influential consultancy firms Investor Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis ended up with a windfall
ISS dismissed the proposal as “outrageous” and Glass Lewis wrote in a 71-page report shared with CBS MoneyWatch that Tesla shareholders risk dilution of their shares if Musk gets the huge stock award, meaning their shares would be worth less could become.
Tesla in April revived the packagewith chairman Robyn Denholm imploring investors to “fix this problem” following the Delaware ruling.
He said in a letter to shareholders that the company had “created more than $735 billion in value” over the past six years.
