Elon Musk, the richest person on the planet, brought a fiery close to the Tesla Inc’s earnings call this week. The proposal of his own $1 trillion pay package became a massive issue of contention, while he also made it a point to call out “corporate terrorists,” aka the firms aligned with his tech empire either on advisory basis or due to equity ownerships, who have advised against the same.
In the same breath, he backed the vision of having more voting control,” while he still presented himself as a disposable key player in case things spiral out of control. With shareholders set to vote on the pay package issue at Tesla’s annual meeting slated for November 6 in Austin, here’s what went down during the tech giant’s third-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.
Tesla Q3 earnings call: Elon Musk’s pay package in focus again
Although the company report indicated that Tesla hit record Q3 revenue, beating Wall Street estimates, thanks to their EV sales, the company failed to meet profit expectations set by analysts. While completely missing out on mentions of the company’s iconic Cybertruck or impacts of tariffs on auto parts, Musk didn’t mince his words while addressing shareholders who have come out against his hefty pay package proposal.
After the 75-minute call, he almost presented his own kryptonite to keep things in control if he were to “go insane.” The Tesla boss said, “I just think that there needs to be enough voting control to give a strong influence. But not not so much that I can’t be fired if I go insane,” as quoted by Bloomberg.
Elon Musk vying for more voting control
He further insisted, “I just don’t feel comfortable building a robot army here and then being ousted because of some asinine recommendations from ISS and Glass Lewis who have no freaking clue.”
Musk’s new statement echoes his long-established argument that he is not okay with building an AI empire for Tesla unless he has better control over it. His “robot army” mention here refers to his thoughts on the company’s humanoid robot, Optimus, which was also seen on the Tron: Ares red carpet premiere recently.
“My fundamental concern with regard to how much money and control I have at Tesla is if I go ahead and build this enormous robot army, can I just be ousted at some point in the future? Um, that’s my biggest concern, that is really the only thing Im trying to address with this,” he said during the shareholder conference call. “What’s called compensation but it’s not like I’m gonna go spend the money, it’s just if we build this robot army do I have at least a strong influence over that robot army? Not control but a strong influence.”
Currently boasting a Forbes-estimated net worth of $487.5 billion, Musk blasted recommendations from advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institution Shareholder Services (ISS) right before the earnings call ended. Describing their suggestions as “asinine,” he added, “Those guys are corporate terrorists,” noting how many “passive” index firms holding equity in Tesla align their views with that of the two aforementioned firms.
Calling them out on their “many terrible recommendations in the past,” he suggested that had they been implemented, they would been “extremely destructive” to Tesla’s well-being. For the unversed, both Glass Lewis and ISS pushed shareholders to vote against Musk’s initially proposed $56 billion pay package last year. Although Tesla shareholders green-lit it, the issue is still outstanding in court.
Contrary to Musk’s kryptonite suggestion during the Wednesday call, state officials and investors have long accused the Tesla board of being comprised of “directors with close ties to the CEO.”
Indian-origin Tesla CFO also backs Elon Musk’s compensation package
As seen during the earnings call, Tesla’s CFO Vaibhav Taneja made final arguments before the call ended that the board committee vote in favour of the pay package plan. He also highlighted that the board committee came up with his compensation proposal while making sure that Musk does not score any benefit unless shareholders make significant returns.
While Musk has long insisted that the pay package not so much about the money as it is about having strong influence. Just days ago, Musk replied to former Tesla employee Romain Hedouin on X, saying, “Tesla is worth more than all other automative companies combined. Which of those CEOs would you like to run Tesla? It won’t be me.”
His “threat” to leave the company was also foregrounded in the company’s proxy filing in September. With Musk stressing that he wanted to acquire at least a 25% voting interest, the officials docs stated, “Musk also raised the possibility that he may pursue his other interests and leave Tesla if he didn’t receive such assurances. he committee further discussed and tested these positions throughout its negotiations and determined that Musk’s sentiment was genuine.”
