Elon Musk is known for his strong political allegiances and vocal opinions, making him no stranger to controversy and pushback.
His SpaceX company recently found itself in legal crosshairs when Cards Against Humanity announced a lawsuit.
Meanwhile, Musk himself delivered a brutal two-word response to Jeff Bezos following Amazon Web Services' major outage yesterday (20 October) that broke several of the world's biggest apps.
Now, the Tesla CEO has issued a sharp retort to a former employee who publicly criticised the structure and size of Musk's proposed compensation package on X.
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They argued that it represents an overpayment that wouldn't generate sufficient value for shareholders. The biggest issue on the agenda at this year’s Tesla Shareholder Meeting is likely that of Musk's proposed pay package.
Ahead of the meeting, the electric vehicle manufacturer has been actively urging investors to vote in favour of the compensation plan. So far, much of the shareholder community has shown overwhelming support for giving Musk his massive paycheck.
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The package could grant the South African $1 trillion in additional holdings if he completes each of the outlined performance milestones.
However, a minority of institutional and individual shareholders have pushed back against the package, either because of its sheer value or because they believe it doesn't adequately benefit shareholders.
The Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) advised voting against Tesla’s 'astronomical' pay package for Musk, saying it would give him 'extraordinarily high pay opportunities over the next ten years' and 'reduce the board’s ability to meaningfully adjust future pay levels.'
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On Saturday (19 October), a former Tesla employee took to X to voice concerns about the proposed pay package, arguing that it would 'barely beat inflation and it would underperform the S&P 500 considerably.'
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He elaborated: “Sorry, Tesla, some of us (and supposedly, ISS too) simply don’t think that underperforming the S&P 500 this much is worth paying somebody 20 billion dollars worth of company value.
"As a fan, I love Tesla, I want it to succeed. As a shareholder, I don’t want Tesla to over-pay for its CEO I strongly believe that the 2025 pay package proposal would over-pay for its CEO, and that other competent CEOs could grow Tesla just as much with way less political drama and cost investors much less that this proposal.”
In response to the post, Musk bluntly replied: “Tesla is worth more than all other automotive companies combined. Which of those CEOs would you like to run Tesla? It won’t be me.”
In its proxy filing after announcing the pay package, Tesla stated it had secured three commitments from Musk. One of those commitments was that the company would 'receive assurances that Musk’s involvement with the political sphere would wind down in a timely manner.'