Copyright independent
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has come out swinging against the “corporate terrorists” opposing his proposed $1 trillion pay package at Tesla, which would also hand him a bigger chunk of the electric car empire, in what would be the largest compensation deal in history. In a tirade during an earnings call, mainly about the level of control his shareholding gives him over Tesla and the “robot army” he says the company is building, Musk focused his frustrations on two proxy advisory firms – outfits which provide research and recommendations to shareholders on how to vote at company meetings. The world’s two biggest such firms, ISS and Glass Lewis, have urged Tesla investors to vote against some or all of Musk’s record-breaking proposed pay package. Musk said the advisory firms "have no freaking clue" and he described them as "corporate terrorists". He also suggested that, as things stand, they could potentially convince shareholders to remove him. “My fundamental concern with regard to how much voting control I have at Tesla is, if I go ahead and build this enormous robot army, can I just be ousted at some point in the future?” he said, according to Wired. “If we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over this robot army?” "I just don't feel comfortable building a robot army here and then being ousted because of some asinine recommendations from ISS and Glass Lewis,” he is also reported to have said in the meeting. As part of the proposed compensation package, Musk’s shareholdings in Tesla will rise from 13 per cent to almost 29 per cent, handing him much more control over the company as it expands from EVs to include AI, robotaxis, and its Optimus humanoid robots. “I just think that there needs to be enough voting control to give a strong influence, but not so much that I can't be fired if I go insane,” he said during the call. The titanic package could grant Musk up to $ 1 trillion over 10 years, contingent on Tesla hitting ambitious growth targets, and will dwarf his previous $56bn deal from 2018, which was already record-breaking at the time. However, the deal's terms mean it will only be awarded if Tesla meets a series of testing performance targets. These include delivering 20 million vehicles, deploying 1 million robotaxis in commercial service, reaching a company valuation of $8.5 trillion, and delivering 1 million Optimus humanoid robots. Despite the eye-watering scale of the proposal, there is some confidence it will pass. Tesla executives have already urged shareholders to support the November 6 vote on the compensation proposal. According to Business Insider, the company's board has warned that if shareholders reject the deal, Musk could reduce his involvement or even walk away entirely. Following the earnings call, Musk continued to attack the proxy advisory companies on X. “The fundamental issue is that half of all publicly-traded shares are controlled by passive index funds who, for the most part, outsource their shareholder vote to the advisory firms of ISS and Glass Lewis,” he wrote. “ISS and Glass Lewis have no actual ownership themselves and often vote along random political lines unrelated to shareholder interests! This is a major problem that is not just limited to Tesla.” The Independent has contacted ISS and Glass Lewis for comment.
