Tesla shareholders approve Elon Musk's $1 trillion pay package

Tesla shareholders approved a record-setting pay package for Chief Executive Elon Musk, a plan designed to motivate the world’s richest man with as much as $1 trillion in additional stock.

- Becky Peterson

Flanked by dancing humanoid robots on a stage bathed in pink and blue light at the electric vehicle maker's Austin, Texas, headquarters, Musk thanked the crowd of shareholders who supported the pay package with more than 75% of the votes cast.

“What we're about to embark upon is not merely a new chapter of the future of Tesla but a whole new book,” Musk said. “I guess what I'm saying is hang onto your Tesla stock,” he added later.

The measure was hotly debated with some large shareholders taking opposing sides. The voting was largely seen as a referendum on the company’s longtime leader and his vision to shift Tesla’s focus to humanoid robots and artificial intelligence.

Musk, who is also CEO of SpaceX and xAI, had threatened on social media to leave Tesla if the measure had been rejected. He is already Tesla’s biggest shareholder, with a roughly 15% stake.

Musk had said he wanted a big enough ownership stake in Tesla to be comfortable that the “robot army” he was developing didn’t fall into the wrong hands, but not so large that he couldn't be fired if he went “crazy.”

On another proposal that would authorize the Tesla board to invest in Musk’s artificial-intelligence company xAI, Tesla General Counsel Brandon Ehrhart said more shares had been voted for the proposal than against, but there were many abstentions. He said the board would consider its next steps.