Less than two years ago, Mr. Musk sold a sizable portion of his shares in the electric car company in order to purchase Twitter, which is now known as X.
Currently, he holds about 13% of Tesla.
However, he demands more control over Tesla’s course because he believes the current structure leaves it open to a “takeover by dubious interests”.
Regarding Tesla’s investments in artificial intelligence (AI) features, Mr. Musk expressed particular concern.
“I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI and robotics without having 25% voting control,” he wrote in a post on X.
He continued: “Unless that is the case, I would prefer to build products outside of Tesla.”
Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives claimed that the remarks had set off a “firestorm” for Tesla, positioning automated and self-driving features as essential to the company’s future.
“If Musk ultimately went down the path to create his own company (separate from Tesla) for his next generation AI projects this would clearly be a big negative for the Tesla story,” the author wrote.
Mr. Ives stated that while he anticipated the board would be able to settle the matter, the remarks would cause “drama” in the interim.
Additionally, we think Musk’s back and forth on such a crucial matter regarding X is not good for the investment.
After the remarks, Tesla’s stock opened more than 2% lower.
The board of the company, according to Mr. Musk, who holds the title of richest person in the world due to his Tesla stock, is “great”.
He said that before presenting a new compensation plan, the company was awaiting a ruling in the ongoing pay deal lawsuit.
A shareholder named Richard Tornetta is suing the board for a $55 billion 10-year compensation package that the board awarded to Elon Musk in 2018. The lawsuit is about this pay package.
More than 70% of Tesla shareholders approved the package, but the lawsuit claimed that many of those shares belonged to individuals with close ties to Mr. Musk.
Advisory groups for shareholders had opposed the plan.
