Who wants to be a trillionaire?
Elon Musk does — and he thinks those who oppose his quest for a 10-figure salary are “corporate terrorists.”
Musk crashed the end of the latest Tesla earnings call to push for approval of his $1 trillion pay package, describing advice from advisory firms opposed to the move as “asinine.”
The mammoth pay package – which is dependent on Musk hitting several benchmarks – would raise his stake in the company to as much as 29%, up from 13%.
“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,” Musk said toward the end of the hour-long call on Wednesday, cutting off his chief financial officer, according to a Bloomberg report.
He described proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, which have urged shareholders to reject the $1 trillion pay package, as “corporate terrorists.”
“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 fumed.
ISS cited “unmitigated concerns” around opportunities to adjust future pay levels, while Glass Lewis warned the plan could dilute other shareholders’ stakes in the firm.
Musk – the world’s richest person with a net worth of $487.5 billion, according to Forbes – has argued that the most important part of the plan would be his gain in voting control.
After he finished speaking, Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja praised the special board committee on the “amazing job” it did in creating the plan.
“There’s nothing which gets passed on until the time shareholders make substantial returns,” Taneja noted.
Musk’s comments brought a heated finish to a disappointing call, with Tesla missing profit estimates despite delivering record sales.
Under the proposed 10-year compensation plan for Musk, his payout would be tied to several lofty milestones. Those include selling 20 million vehicles, delivering 1 million humanoid robots and growing Tesla’s market value more than eightfold, to an eye-popping $8.5 trillion.
Musk has warned Tesla’s board that he would abandon the EV maker to “pursue his other interests” unless he secured about 25% voting control and was “fully paid for his past services,” according to a proxy filing from last month obtained by Bloomberg.
Shareholders are slated to vote on the pay package during Tesla’s annual meeting in Austin on Nov. 6.
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives said in Wednesday night note that he believes the package “will be approved by a wide margin despite some opposition” as the automaker angles to keep Musk “as a war-time CEO.”
Also on Wednesday, Tesla said operating income plunged 40% in the third quarter and disclosed more than $400 million in tariff-related costs. Its operating expenses skyrocketed 50%, to $3.4 billion.
Shares in Tesla fell 3.8% Thursday morning. The stock is up 11.1% so far this year.
