Tesla shares

Huge share package: Elon Musk gets even richer

Elon Musk is likely to receive another large block of Tesla shares in the near future.

(Bild: AFP/Frederic J. BROWN)

Tesla shareholders have once again approved a huge share package worth tens of billions of dollars for CEO Elon Musk. The remuneration plan originally approved in 2018 was overturned by a US court in January.

The new vote does not mean that Musk will now automatically receive the share package. But it does improve his chances of getting it. The shareholders also voted in favor of moving Tesla's registered office from the US state of Delaware to Texas, as the company announced at the Annual General Meeting on Thursday.

First vote overturned by court
In the first vote in 2018, the share package received a majority of 73 percent. But then a shareholder filed a lawsuit against it - and in the end a judge in Delaware torpedoed the plan.

Electric cars are booming - Tesla is also benefiting from this.

(Bild: APA/AFP/POOL/Patrick Pleul)

She came to the conclusion that Musk had too much influence in the background during the negotiations on the generous remuneration in the Tesla Board of Directors to be able to speak of a fair process. As the shareholders had been kept in the dark about the entanglements, they had not had the opportunity to make a well-considered decision, the judge argued.

Tesla shares in chunks
At the time, Musk was granted the right to receive a good 300 million Tesla shares in installments at the 2018 price if the company met a number of ambitious targets over a period of up to ten years.

Among other things, the stock market value was to rise from a good 50 billion dollars to 650 billion dollars. Based on this target, the value of the package was once estimated at around 56 billion dollars. But share prices fluctuate.

Electric car euphoria brought rapid growth
After rapid growth and thanks to the euphoria surrounding electric cars at the time, Tesla quickly reached the mark and was even worth more than a trillion dollars at times - and Musk's remuneration package was thus worth around 100 billion dollars. In the meantime, demand has cooled noticeably and Tesla is still worth around 580 billion dollars on the stock market.

In recent months, Musk had held out the prospect that he could push ahead with the development of applications with artificial intelligence elsewhere if he did not gain more control over Tesla. This triggered a new investor lawsuit in Delaware on Thursday.