With a $1 trillion pay package at stake, Elon Musk attacks influential companies and tells shareholders to reject them: ‘These people are corporate terrorists’

After months of relative calm following his resignation from the Department of Government Efficiency and subsequent fallout with President Donald Trump, Musk has criticized proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and Glass Lewis.

“I don’t feel comfortable building an army of robots here and then getting kicked out because of some foolish recommendation from… International Space Station “And Glass Lewis, who don’t have any weird ideas. I mean, these guys are corporate terrorists,” Musk said.

Musk, separately X On Wednesday, he also raised questions about the role of proxy advisory firms generally. the Tesla The CEO echoed ARK Invest’s criticism CEO Cathie Wood By saying that these companies, which issue recommendations to shareholders on how to vote on proposals at annual shareholder meetings of public companies, have too much influence — especially with passive investors like index funds that have significant voting power because of the shares they hold for clients.

“ISS and Glass Lewis have no actual ownership, and often vote on arbitrary political grounds that have nothing to do with shareholder interests! This is a big problem that’s not just limited to Tesla,” Musk wrote on X.

However, advisory firms do not vote directly at annual shareholder meetings and merely recommend positions that are also analyzed individually by some of the largest institutional investors, including Black Rock, Vanguardand State Streetwhich conducts its own internal research. Both ISS and Glass Lewis twice recommended voters reject Musk’s previous 2018 pay package. Shareholders ultimately approved the package twice.

A Glass Lewis spokesman said luck Its job statement is to provide analysis and recommendations to its clients.

“These Tesla shareholders will ultimately make their own decisions on the pay proposal put forward by Mr. Musk and the board members who put it to a shareholder vote,” the statement read.

ISS declined to comment. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Musk, who has a net worth of $455 billion, said he needs an ownership stake “around the mid-20s” to achieve his Tesla goals. The pay package in question would give Musk about $1 trillion over 10 years if he meets performance metrics, one of which includes increasing the company’s market value by more than 500% to $8.5 trillion.

Both ISS and Glass Lewis issued reports earlier this month questioning Musk’s pay package, partly because of the size of the package and because it would dilute existing shareholders’ holdings.

While Tesla claimed that regular benchmarking does not apply to Musk’s pay because no other company has “remotely similar goals embodied in its compensation programs,” Musk’s 2025 performance award is “unprecedented” compared to other public companies, and about 33.5 times larger than its predecessor from 2018, Glass Lewis wrote in the report.

“Clearly, quantum, on an achievable and granted basis, trumps all other pay packages.”