Tesla shareholders approve paying Elon Musk one trillion dollars in stock

BarcelonaTesla shareholders have approved paying the company's CEO, Elon Musk, a package of company shares valued at one trillion – that is, one million million or 10¹²—dollars. The electric car multinational's annual shareholders' meeting approved this payment as compensation to Musk—who is now the richest person in the world—but it will only materialize if the company reaches a series of sales and profit targets.

The stock package represents a victory for Musk, who had threatened to step down as Tesla's leader if it wasn't approved. Shareholders, therefore, preferred to accept the CEO's demands to keep him tied to the multinational and ignore the doubts about his management that have arisen in recent months, when The group's sales have collapsed. in several markets (especially in Europe) as a reaction from buyers to his support for US President Donald Trump.

If he wants to collect on the stock package approved this Thursday, Musk, whose fortune is currently valued at $500 billion, will have to ensure that Tesla's market capitalization reaches $8.5 trillion (7.4 trillion euros at the current exchange rate, higher than the combined market capitalization of all other car manufacturers in the world) over the next ten years. He will also have to multiply current profits by 24 to reach $400 billion and sell 20 million new vehicles (in 22 years he has sold just over 8 million), in addition to millions of robots. If he ultimately collects on the package, Musk would receive shares corresponding to 12% of Tesla's capital and would then control 25%.

Celebrations among robots

The decision to give Musk that bonus was supported by 75% of the company's shareholders. After the shareholders' meeting, Musk appeared at an event at the group's Gigafactory in Texas: on a stage, before an enthusiastic audience made up exclusively of shareholders selected by the company, the South African billionaire celebrated the shareholders' decision by dancing to electronic music with two humanoid robots. In the front row, wearing his usual white cowboy hat, was Musk's brother, Kimbal, who is also a member of the board of directors, along with other senior executives of the company. In fact, a second victory for the CEO was the re-election of three of his allied executives over the advice of the group's corporate advisors: Ira Ehrenpreis, a personal friend of Musk, Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, former head of human resources for the North American chain.

Ehrenpreis chaired Tesla's governance committee, which unilaterally approved changes to the company's internal regulations to limit shareholders' ability to sue executives in cases of personal conflicts of interest with the company.

"With robotics and AI, you can boost the global economy by a factor of 10 or 100. There's no obvious limit," Musk said in an hour-long speech. Like most American tech companies, Tesla is making massive investments in artificial intelligence and robot design, with Optimus leading the way: "It will be the greatest product of all time by far. Optimus is like a kind of..." glitch "[Computer error] to make money," he added about the robot.

"I guess what I mean is, hold onto your Tesla stock," he concluded.