Tesla shareholders reinstate Elon Musk's $56B compensation package

Tesla shareholders voted Thursday to grant Elon Musk's $56 billion compensation package for 2018, despite a US judge's order in January to rescind it.

According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, 77% of the electric carmaker's shareholders voted in favor of reinstating Musk's pay package.

Judge Kathaleen McCormick of the state of Delaware found the package "improperly granted" by the company's board in January, saying that members of the board "lacked independence" from Musk.

The reinstatement of Musk's package, however, does not override the judge's ruling.

At Tesla's 2024 annual stockholder meeting held in Austin, Texas on Thursday, shareholders also voted in favor of Musk's proposal to move Tesla's incorporation to Texas, where the carmaker's biggest US factory is located, from Delaware, where most publicly traded firms are incorporated.

Corporations registered in Delaware that do not business in the state do not pay corporate income tax, while the state also does not have sales tax, investment income taxes, inheritance taxes or personal property taxes.

"Sending this cake to Delaware as a parting gift," Musk wrote on X with a photo, on which a cake was written a Latin phrase "Vox Populi, Vox Dei" meaning "the voice of the people is the voice of God."

Although Tesla shares closed Thursday with a gain of 3.03%, they were down 1.84% at 10.47 a.m. EDT (1447GMT).