Elon Musk says individual Tesla shareholders support his $46 billion pay package (2024)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the vast majority of Tesla’s retail shareholders who have voted ahead of the company’s Thursday meeting have done so in favor of his lucrative compensation package.

“So far, roughly 90% of retail shareholders who have voted have voted in favor of both resolutions,” Musk said Saturday on X, formerly Twitter, which he owns. “The public sentiment is unequivocally supportive.”

Tesla shareholders on Thursday will complete voting on whether or not to approve Musk’s 2018 compensation plan, which was struck down by a judge earlier this year. If investors re-approve the plan, it could pave the way for Musk to buy up to 304 million Tesla shares. The plan is currently valued at $46 billion, making it the biggest executive compensation plan in U.S. history.

Musk’s remarks came as a divide between retail shareholders and some larger investors widened, with Norway’s $1.7 trillion sovereign wealth management fund recently announcing it will vote against Musk’s compensation. California’s pension system CalPERS and a group of funds managed by New York City Comptroller Brad Lander will also vote against Tesla’s recommendations.

Proxy advisors Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) have also recommended a vote against the plan. Their recommendations can hold some major weight: When the firms oppose management on say-on-pay proposals, support can drop between 17% and 19%, according to recent analysis by University of Utah finance professor Chong Shu.

Tesla has gone to great lengths to win over shareholders, purchasing advertisem*nts and launching a dedicated website. Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm has been reaching out to larger institutional investors to secure support. Non-affiliated backers such as the influencers Alexandra Merz and Sawyer Merrit have been promoting voting, raising awareness about issues, and reaching out to voters for one-on-one discussions.

Retail shareholders have also reached out to non-U.S. brokers and banks to ensure that smaller investors can vote, which their systems had not previously allowed. Musk has lent his support to the efforts, writing last month that Tesla will reach out to those groups to help shareholders vote.

Several funds, including Sweden’s Nordnet, have since allowed investors to vote ahead of Tesla’s meeting on Thursday. Members of Tesla’s ultra-online segment of investors are also promising backlash against funds and brokerage services that vote against the Tesla’s recommendations.

“What Tesla has accomplished is unparalleled,” Rob Maurer, who hosts the Tesla Daily podcast, wrote last week. “For anyone to look back in hindsight and diminish how extremely difficult these milestones were to achieve is outrageous.”