Elon Musk Got 72% in Tesla Shareholder Vote on Pay

Business|Musk’s Tesla Pay Package Got Big Margin in Shareholder Vote

Tesla shareholders decisively backed a proposal to affirm Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package, according to details of the vote released on Friday.

The vote of confidence in Mr. Musk reduces the risk that he would leave Tesla, but may also validate behavior that some investors say has hurt the carmaker, analysts and investors said.

Passage of the proposal was announced at Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting on Thursday, without the underlying total. In the end, about 72 percent of voting shares, excluding stock owned by Mr. Musk and his brother, Kimbal, backed the pay package.

For months, many Tesla investors have worried about how engaged Elon Musk would be in running the electric car company after a judge in Delaware voided his pay package, originally approved in 2018.

The compensation plan requires Mr. Musk to hold on to the shares for at least five years before selling them, and the value of the package will continue to fluctuate before he can do so. At Friday’s closing price, the shares were worth about $47 billion.

Addressing shareholders after the vote, Mr. Musk vowed that he was committed to Tesla. The pay package, he said, “is not actually cash, and I can’t cut and run, nor would I want to.”