Tesla’s shareholders meeting has approved paying the company’s CEO, , a science fiction salary that could reach the record figure of a trillion dollars in stocks. A compensation package that not only strengthens the South African tycoon’s control over the electric vehicle manufacturer, but could also make him the first billionaire on the planet. The proposal, backed by just over 75% of the shareholders, clears the way for the CEO to remain at the helm of a company for another decade to transform into an artificial intelligence and robotics powerhouse.
The plan approved this Thursday, which is valued at around $878 billion in shares, will compensate the businessman for each of the twelve milestones set in it, ranging from the manufacturing of 20 million cars, the deployment of a million autonomous taxis, until the sale of a million robots . The measure also guarantees Musk will remain in charge for at least another decade, just when the company is committed to turning artificial intelligence into its new growth engine. If Musk, who already controls about 15% of the shares, is able to put the mark of achievement on the planned objectives, this could raise its stake in Tesla above 25%.
To get here, especially in recent weeks, the company’s board of directors has redoubled a campaign that has been underway for some time, to get the majority of shareholders to give the green light to the historic package. What’s more, in a letter sent to investors, the president of the vehicle manufacturer, Robyn Denholmeven warned them that Elon Musk could leave the company if this package was not approved: “The plan was designed with a single purpose: to step on the accelerator that drives Tesla’s next phase of growth and innovation,” Denholm wrote.
However, large investment funds and institutional advisors such as Norwegian Norges Bank, Glass Lewis o Institutional Shareholder Service, They showed their reluctance to give the green light to this plan, warning that this remuneration could erode value for shareholders, in addition to creating excessive dependence on Musk. “This is not a payment for performance, it is for having power without control,” said Thomas DiNapoli, head of the New York Department of Audit and Control, to .
Despite criticism among Tesla shareholders of Elon Musk’s plan, the result has been overwhelming. has interpreted this vote as a sign of the confidence that the company’s investors have in the South African’s ability to keep the company on the right track during this technological transition. According to the newspaper that is in the hands of a billionaire, Jeff Bezosthe agreement “represents the beginning of a new era of executive compensation, in a world hyperinflated by CEO salaries.” In fact, Musk himself had already anticipated his wishes weeks before. On October 22, he claimed that he needed to retain control of the company in order to build a “huge humanoid army” of Optimus. “I don’t feel comfortable building that robot army if I don’t have at least a strong influence,” he explained then.
As soon as the approval of the package was announced, Elon Musk appeared on the stage that has been installed at Tesla’s headquarters in Austin, Texas, where he has moved because there, corporate rules allow the businessman to exercise his voting rights with greater room for maneuver. There, between shouts of “Elon, Elon” and in the company of a robot Optimus who danced to the rhythm of the music, thanked his board of directors for their support and proclaimed that the vehicle manufacturer now begins “not a new chapter, but a new book” with the development of its line of humanoid robots.
An even more ambitious future that Musk drew again in an interview for the podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, in which he denied that he was developing a mobile phone, although he predicted that the smartphones They will no longer be as we know them: “We will not have a telephone in the traditional sense. What we will call a telephone will actually be a peripheral node for AI inference with wireless connections.”
According to Musk, “AI on the server will communicate with AI on a device and generate real-time video of anything you can imagine.” According to his prophecy, within five or six years “there will be no operating systems or applications; it will simply be a device with a screen and audio, designed to integrate as much artificial intelligence as possible.”
