is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.
Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.
Well, that’s not very subtle.
In an earnings call last night, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he needs more control over Tesla, as well as a pay package that could be worth nearly $1 trillion, in exchange for building a “robot army.” Otherwise, he could get ousted as CEO, and then, well, who would control the army?
In a sense, Musk is asking Tesla’s shareholders to vote to approve an enormous payday to insure that he — and he alone — remains in control of the company’s legions of humanoid robots (that do not exist). It was a very strange way to persuade investors to vote in favor of the proposal that’s been put forward by the company’s board. And it amounted to an unsubtle threat that Musk could simply pick up his ball and go play somewhere else.
“My fundamental concern with regard to how much voting control I have in Tesla is, if I go ahead and build this enormous robot army, can I just be ousted at some point in the future?” Musk said. “That’s my biggest concern.”
“If I go ahead and build this enormous robot army, can I just be ousted at some point in the future?”
Under the proposed pay package, Musk would need to meet certain milestones in order to receive that eye-popping compensation, such as producing 1 million robotaxis and 1 million humanoid robots, as well as increase Tesla’s valuation by trillions of dollars. Musk, already the world’s richest man, would ascend to new heights of financial untouchability if he is able to achieve these goals. Shareholders are expected to approve the package during the company’s annual shareholder meeting on November 7th.
Musk’s fears of being kicked out of Tesla conflict with his previous threats to simply leave the company if the pay package is not approved. It seems outlandish that Tesla’s board would ever consider ousting Musk, especially after they sat on their hands throughout the year as Musk’s hard-charging efforts for the Trump administration as head of DOGE led to a nationwide protest movement against Tesla and a dramatic drop in the company’s sales. If moonlighting as Trump’s hatchet man couldn’t get Musk fired, it’s hard to imagine what would.
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
... continue reading