Tesla shareholders on Thursday approved chief executive Elon Musk's $56 billion pay package, a ringing endorsement of his leadership even as the electric car maker faces market challenges under his leadership.
Shareholders also approved a proposal to move the company's legal home to Texas from Delaware, Tesla said at its annual shareholder meeting in Austin, Texas.
Mr Musk had sought the move after a court in Delaware rejected his paycheque.
Cheers erupted when the proposal to grant him the pay package was mentioned before voting.
“It's incredible," Mr Musk told the crowd gathered at Tesla's headquarters in Austin. “I think we’re not just opening a new chapter for Tesla, we’re starting a new book.”
Mr Musk had posted a chart on his social-media platform X late on Wednesday that showed the resolution would pass by wide margins.
The Tesla chief could still face a long legal fight to convince a Delaware judge who invalidated the package in January, saying that as Mr Musk controlled the board, he was not entitled to the landmark payment.
The board said he deserves the package because he hit all of the ambitious targets on market value, revenue and profitability.
Mr Musk reassured shareholders that he will stick around, telling them he cannot sell any stock in the compensation package for five years.
“It's not actually cash, and I can't cut and run, nor would I want to,” he said.
Concerns have arisen, however, that as the owner of six companies including X, SpaceX and xAI, Mr Musk may be spread too thin.
He has also alienated a large part of his electric-vehicle client base, which is liberal-leaning, by increasingly aligning himself with Republicans and espousing conservative views.
A group of shareholders showed its displeasure with Mr Musk's leadership by filing a lawsuit against him, saying his new company xAI would be in competition against Tesla and would funnel talent and resources away from the electric vehicle maker.
The debate over whether Tesla's focus is on AI or electric vehicles is long-standing.
Mr Musk has threatened on X to develop AI elsewhere if he does not receive a 25 per cent stake in Tesla – he owns about 13 per cent now, according to AP.
Dubai's first rentable Tesla Cybertruck – in pictures
The%20specs
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
The biog
Favourite books: 'Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life' by Jane D. Mathews and ‘The Moment of Lift’ by Melinda Gates
Favourite travel destination: Greece, a blend of ancient history and captivating nature. It always has given me a sense of joy, endless possibilities, positive energy and wonderful people that make you feel at home.
Favourite pastime: travelling and experiencing different cultures across the globe.
Favourite quote: “In the future, there will be no female leaders. There will just be leaders” - Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook.
Favourite Movie: Mona Lisa Smile
Favourite Author: Kahlil Gibran
Favourite Artist: Meryl Streep
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Company%20profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Belong%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Michael%20Askew%20and%20Matthew%20Gaziano%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Technology%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETotal%20funding%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%243.5%20million%20from%20crowd%20funding%20and%20angel%20investors%3Cstrong%3E%3Cbr%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2012%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds
Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices
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