Tesla’s CEO is pleading with shareholders to greenlight Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package, calling the upcoming vote a “critical inflection point.”
Tesla Robin Denholm chair He urged shareholders to support a proposed $1 trillion compensation package for CEO Elon Musk, warning in a letter Monday that the company risks losing “significant value” if the deal falls through and Musk chooses to step down as CEO.
The appeal to investors comes before Tesla’s annual shareholders meeting On November 6thwhen votes will be counted on the historic pay plan and other key proposals. At the heart of the board’s message: Musk’s leadership is vital as Tesla moves further toward artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous driving — and without a new long-term catalyst, the company may not retain Musk, who has set its course over the past decade-plus.
“Without Elon, Tesla could lose significant value, as the value of our company may not be what we aim it to become,” Denholm wrote, adding that Musk’s time, talent and vision…were essential to delivering extraordinary returns for shareholders.
She added that if shareholders do not support the pay package and “fail to foster an environment that motivates Elon to achieve great things through a fair pay-for-performance plan, we risk him stepping down as CEO.”
Musk’s proposed trillion-dollar performance award It includes 12 tranches of restricted stock, each tied to ambitious milestones that culminate in Tesla achieving a market value of $8.5 trillion, more than four times its current valuation. The goals also include operational metrics such as the delivery of 20 million vehicles as well as the deployment of millions of robots and AI bots over the next decade.
To put the size into perspective, this compensation plan is the largest ever in American corporate history, surpassing Musk’s previous plan. $56 billion package for 2018. That was the deal It was invalidated by a Delaware court earlier this year After finding that the process lacked proper oversight and transparency from the Board of Directors.
In her letter, Denholm posed a direct question to investors: “Do you want to retain Elon as CEO of Tesla and incentivize him to drive Tesla to become the leading provider of autonomous solutions and the most valuable company in the world?”
She described the vote as a “critical inflection point” for Tesla, stressing that Musk’s “unique” leadership cannot be easily replaced, especially as the company transitions from being “just another car company” and races against competitors to market vehicles powered by artificial intelligence. Advanced robotics.
Opposition to this proposal is growing, with the agency’s consulting firms, Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis, Shareholder Vote Recommendation NoNoting its unprecedented size and concerns about the independence of the board of directors. However, Tesla’s board asserts that aligning Musk’s incentives with shareholder interests and providing the scale of ownership he seeks is essential to keeping him “focused” and “committed for at least another 7.5 years.”
Shareholders have until 11:59 PM ET on November 5 to cast their votes. The outcome could determine not only the future of Musk’s role at Tesla, but the company’s path as it seeks leadership in artificial intelligence, self-driving vehicles, and robotics.
“The bottom line is simple: Elon will only be rewarded if he delivers exceptional performance that benefits all Tesla shareholders,” Denholm wrote.
You can read her full letter to Tesla shareholders below:
News: Tesla CEO Robyn Denholm issued a new two-page letter to @Tesla Shareholders, warn of what could happen if Elon Musk’s 2025 CEO Performance Award Plan goes through a vote:
“Without Elon, Tesla may lose significant value, as our company may no longer have value… pic.twitter.com/AGCwKZJ2Zy– Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) October 27, 2025
For this story, luck Use generative AI to help with the rough draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publication.
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