Copyright dailymail
Elon Musk could become the world's first trillionaire after Tesla shareholders voted to incentivize him to improve the brand with a mammoth pay package. The Tesla CEO and world's richest man won a shareholder vote on Thursday guaranteeing him stock worth $1 trillion if he hits certain performance targets over the next decade. The vote followed weeks of debate over his management record at the electric car maker and whether anyone deserved such unprecedented pay. Utimately, more than 75 percent of voting shareholders who had gathered at the company's headquarters in Austin, Texas, approved the plan. 'Fantastic group of shareholders,' Musk said after the final vote was tallied, adding 'Hang on to your Tesla stock.' Investors voting for the pay packet were beholden by Musk's threat that he could walk away from Tesla entirely. There were fears that in doing so, Musk would tank the stock and send share prices plummeting. Tesla shares, already up 80 percent in the past year, rose 1.5 percent on news of the vote to $447.27 in after-hours trading. Musk says the vote wasn't really about the money but getting a higher Tesla stake - it will double to nearly 30 percent - so he could have more power over the company. He was seeking more control given Tesla's future 'robot army.' He implied that he didn't trust anyone else to have more control given the possible danger to humanity. The vote is a resounding victory for Musk, proving investors still have faith in him as Tesla struggles with plunging sales, market share and profits, partially driven by Musk's on-again, off-again bromance with President Donald Trump and his foray into politics. The vote came just three days after a report from Europe showing Tesla car sales plunged again last month, including a 50 percent collapse in Germany. Still, many Tesla investors consider Musk as a miracle man capable of stunning business feats, noting he pulled Tesla from the brink of bankruptcy a half-dozen years ago to turn it into one of the world's most valuable companies. The vote clears a path for Musk to become a trillionaire by granting him new shares, but it still won't be easy. The board of directors that designed the pay package require him to hit several ambitious financial and operational targets, including increasing the value of the company on the stock market nearly six times its current level. Musk also has to deliver 20 million Tesla electric vehicles to the market over 10 years amid new, stiff competition, more than double the number since the founding of the company. He also has to deploy more than 1 million of his human-like robots that he has promised will transform work and home - he calls it a 'robot army' - from zero today. Musk could add billions to his wealth in a few years by partly delivering these goals, according to various intermediate steps that will hand him newly created stock in the company as he nears the ultimate targets. That could help him eventually top what is now considered America's all-time richest man, John D. Rockefeller. The railroad titan is estimated by Guinness World Records to have been worth $630 billion, in current dollars, at his peak wealth more than 110 years ago. Musk is worth $493 billion, as estimated by Forbes magazine. Musk's win came despite opposition from several large funds, including Calpers, the biggest U.S. public pension, and Norway's sovereign wealth fund. Two corporate watchdogs, Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, also blasted the package, which so angered Musk he took to calling them 'corporate terrorists' at a recent investor meeting. Critics argued that the board of directors was too beholden to Musk, his behavior too reckless lately and the riches offered too much. Supporters said that Musk needed to be incentivized to focus on the company as he works to transform it into an AI powerhouse using software to operate hundreds of thousands of self-driving Tesla cars - many without steering wheels - and Tesla robots deployed in offices, factories and homes doing many tasks now handled by humans.
