Telsa founder and CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday that he will no longer take control of the company and will focus on his work in artificial intelligence (AI) outside of the electric car maker.
billionaire Said on Monday's XThe platform, formerly known as Twitter and now owned by Mr. Musk, said he wanted to “grow Tesla into a leader in AI and robotics without having up to 25% voting power.” I feel displeased,” he said. Musk said the stake was “enough to have influence, but not so much that it can't be reversed.”
“Otherwise, I would like to develop products outside of Tesla,” Musk said.
In addition to Tesla, Musk owns SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, xAI, and X.
Masks control about 13% Tesla's The Wall Street Journal reportedciting FactSet research. He sold a portion of his controlling interest in Twitter to raise funds to buy it for $44 billion in October 2022.
Musk's move to strengthen his control of Tesla comes as he and the company await the verdict in a lawsuit brought by Tesla shareholders in Delaware state court. The lawsuit seeks to invalidate a 2018 compensation package that could exceed $55 billion allocated to Musk by the company's board of directors.
“Tesla's board is great,” Musk said in a series of posts on Monday, adding, “The reason there is no new 'compensation plan' is because we are still waiting for the Delaware compensation case to be decided.”
“From my standpoint, this is primarily about ensuring I have the right amount of voting influence in Tesla. If I have 25%, that means I have influence, but , it can be invalidated if twice as many shareholders as in favor vote against me. Below 15%, the favor/disagree ratio ignores me and a takeover with dubious interests becomes very easy. “It will be,” Musk wrote.
Musk also said he was “ok” with the dual-class voting structure, which allows some shareholders to have more voting rights per share. But, he said, “we've been told it's impossible to achieve post-IPO in Delaware.”
Musk's warning is likely to be a change in direction from previous views on Tesla.
The company announced its humanoid robot “Optimus” in September. In September 2022. Musk said on an earnings call earlier this year that Tesla's planned robots “could be more important than the car business in the long run.” CNN reported.
Updated at 11:58am
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