• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down

2

Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for

3

The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow

1

'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down

2

Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for

3

The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow
TechTesla

Elon Musk can’t just ask ‘his brother and his besties’ at Tesla to pay him $46 billion, NYC comptroller says

Amanda Gerut
By
Amanda Gerut
Amanda Gerut
News Editor, West Coast
Down Arrow Button Icon
Amanda Gerut
By
Amanda Gerut
Amanda Gerut
News Editor, West Coast
Down Arrow Button Icon
June 4, 2024, 8:26 PM ET
Elon Musk
Tesla CEO Elon Musk in 2023.Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

As Tesla ramps up its campaign to ratify CEO Elon Musk’s $46 billion stock-option package at a shareholder meeting days away, investors are weighing their decision on the critical vote.

Recommended Video

Some shareholders are clearly in the camp that the pay package is too high and a strong indicator of failed corporate governance on the Tesla board. Other investors, including an army of small retail holders, have already voted in support of Musk.

At a meeting of Tesla investors on Tuesday, including New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, representatives made their case for voting against supporting Musk’s 2018 pay package a second time at the company’s annual shareholder meeting this month. Lander, whose office manages $271 billion in assets across five NYC retirement funds, said the Tesla board has repeatedly failed to provide the independent governance on behalf of shareholders that it is legally obligated to provide. Lander noted that the five NYC funds hold 3.4 million shares of the electric-vehicle maker, worth about $627 million. Lander has said the funds will vote against the the Tesla CEO’s pay and against the reelection bids of board members Kimbal Musk, Elon Musk’s brother; and James Murdoch. Both are hopelessly conflicted, Lander said.

“This vote is not a referendum on Elon Musk as CEO,” said Lander. “He is a visionary whose role in Tesla in the past has been critical but there must be independent shareholder governance that makes sure pay packages are reasonable. This pay package is not reasonable.”

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk’s pay was rescinded in January by a Delaware Chancery Court judge who determined the board’s process for awarding stock options then valued at $56 billion to Musk lacked independence and that the deal wasn’t properly negotiated. After the ruling, Musk announced that he would seek to move Tesla’s headquarters from Delaware to Texas, where courts might be more deferential. The Tesla board has asked investors to reapprove Musk’s pay and the move south. Shareholder advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services have recommended that investors vote against the pay package, while the Tesla board and its independent chair Robyn Denholm are urging investors to back the company and its CEO.

According to Lander, however, Tesla doesn’t have a full-time CEO who is focused on growing the EV maker, and Musk is “chasing shiny new objects” at the moment. He and other investors in the past have complained that Musk isn’t focused enough on Tesla and is distracted by social media and a half-dozen other companies where he holds leadership roles, including X, xAI, Neuralink, and the Boring Company.

Ivan Frishberg, chief sustainability officer of Amalgamated Bank who leads shareholder engagement, said that Musk is increasingly distracted and it’s a growing concern because Tesla is facing significant headwinds. Those come in the form of greater global competition for Tesla’s core product, development delays, and labor disputes. Frishberg said it was particularly concerning that two corporate directors departed and reports blamed the board’s level of deference to Musk as an underlying reason. Close relationships between the board members including long-standing friendships, familial relations, and interwoven business dealings are part of investors’ mounting concerns, he said. The bank’s clients hold 600,000 shares of Tesla on behalf of its funds, and Frishberg said they would vote against Kimbal Musk and Murdoch in the election vote due to the lack of independence on the board.

In the area of Musk’s pay, what’s happening at Tesla could lead to reverberations across the capital markets, warned Lander. Tesla investors and NYC retirees deserve to have a sufficiently independent board overseeing Musk and safeguarding their investments, argued Lander.

“When billionaires are allowed to flout the rules, normal people suffer,” he said. “A billionaire can’t just have his brother and his besties be the ones to decide what rules they’ll follow, what courts they’ll listen to, and what rules they’ll abide by.”

Lander, who previously told Fortune that his office hasn’t been able to even get a call back from the Tesla board about its concerns, described Musk’s pay package as “outrageously large and insufficiently governed” at Tuesday’s meeting.

Comptroller Brooke Lierman, an elected official in Maryland, said at the meeting this week that Tesla’s poor track record of managing its workforce and the board’s lack of attention to human capital concerns presented a significant risk to weigh in determining how to vote.

“Suffice it to say that for Tesla to succeed, we need a management team that is on the ball,” said Lierman. And an effective board at Tesla should “make sure somebody is standing up to the CEO when necessary.”

About the Author
Amanda Gerut
By Amanda GerutNews Editor, West Coast

Amanda Gerut is the west coast editor at Fortune, overseeing publicly traded businesses, executive compensation, Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, and investigations.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • TikTok icon
  • YouTube icon

Latest in Tech

m
Commentarydisruption
The Messi Test and how the Spaniards messed with it: what the World Cup final taught me about the Jobs AI can’t touch
By Bhaskar ChakravortiJuly 25, 2026
2 minutes ago
What it’s like to be a founder of the most high-stakes startup ever, OpenAI
AIOpenAI
What it’s like to be a founder of the most high-stakes startup ever, OpenAI
By Alyson ShontellJuly 25, 2026
2 hours ago
SpaceX may have missed its window to buy Tesla
Big TechTech Companies
SpaceX may have missed its window to buy Tesla
By Shawn TullyJuly 25, 2026
3 hours ago
alex
CommentaryEntrepreneurship
I sold my startup for millions without a single dollar in revenue. Here’s why that’s the point
By Alexander Kardos-NyheimJuly 25, 2026
4 hours ago
Google logo is displayed on a smartphone in front of the EU Flag.
CybersecurityGoogle
EU strikes Google with $1 billion fine in major crackdown on antitrust regulations even as Trump threatens retaliation
By The Associated Press and Sam McNeilJuly 24, 2026
15 hours ago
AI executives demand OpenAI release more details about how the Hugging Face hack happened
AIOpenAI
AI executives demand OpenAI release more details about how the Hugging Face hack happened
By Emily ForliniJuly 24, 2026
16 hours ago

Most Popular

'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down
Economy
'The demographic dividend of the last 40 years is ending': J.P. Morgan says the world is running out of the two things that kept interest rates down
By Eleanor PringleJuly 24, 2026
1 day ago
Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for
Big Tech
Jensen Huang made his $172 billion fortune on AI chips. His family's $75 million gift to Vanderbilt argues art decides what technology is for
By Sydney LakeJuly 23, 2026
2 days ago
The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow
Economy
The $39 trillion U.S. national debt isn’t as high as Japan’s and Singapore’s relative to economy size—and yet it's still worse somehow
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 23, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of oil as of July 24, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 24, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 24, 2026
1 day ago
The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind
Real Estate
The millennial generation has split, new Fed research shows: Those over 35 are edging toward boomer-style wealth, while everyone else falls behind
By Nick LichtenbergJuly 22, 2026
3 days ago
Current price of silver as of Friday, July 24, 2025
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Friday, July 24, 2025
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 24, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.