Tesla shareholders have reaffirmed the pay award of over $45 billion for Elon Musk, the CEO, in a vote at the annual meeting on June 13, 2024. The legal challenge to this pay award was set aside by shareholders despite concerns about executive pay accountability. The vote is seen as a strong sign of support for Musk's management of Tesla and could persuade the judge who voided the award to reinstate it.
The approval came after Elon Musk, who is also CEO of SpaceX, Neuralink, and xAI, promised shareholders that Tesla is making great progress on developing vehicle autonomy. Critics of Musk expressed their opinions but in smaller numbers.
Tesla held its annual shareholder meeting at its headquarters in Austin, Texas. The vote was a setback for investors who had hoped it would send a message about the accountability of chief executives and the limits of executive pay.
Elon Musk posted the news of shareholder approval on his social media platform X before it was officially announced. His supporters used X to drum up support for his payday and praised the decision after the vote.
Tesla is also moving its site of incorporation from Delaware to Texas, where it has its largest U.S. factory. Musk predicted that the economy would pick up after 12 months and Tesla would deliver production Cybertrucks in late 2023.
Musk described his ambition to create a ridehailing network with Tesla vehicles equipped with self-driving systems and owned by both Tesla and customers. He promised that limited production of Optimus humanoid robots would begin in 2025 and predicted over 1,000 or a few thousand Optimus robots would be working at Tesla in the next year.