Tesla Must Have 25 Percent Voting Control Before Musk Can Achieve His AI Goal

(CTN News) – Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla (TSLA.O), said he would not feel comfortable growing the automaker into a leader in artificial intelligence and robotics without at least 25% voting control.

A post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, by Musk stated that unless he had enough stock in Tesla to be influential, but not enough to prevent him from being overthrown, he would prefer to build products outside of the electric-vehicle manufacturer.

Although Tesla has long touted its partially automated “Full Self-Driving” software and its prototype humanoid robots, its automotive business generates most of its revenue.

Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas estimated in September that market value could rise by almost $600 billion if it incorporates its Dojo supercomputer to train AI models.

In premarket trading on Tuesday, Tesla shares fell about 2% after Musk’s remarks.

The world’s richest man owns around 13% of stock after selling billions of dollars of shares in 2022 to help finance his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.

After Tesla’s IPO, he was told he couldn’t get 25% voting control with a dual-class share structure, so he posted on X that he would be fine with a dual-class share structure.

Meta’s crazy multi-class share structure, which gives the next 20+ generations of Zuckerbergs control, was fine pre-IPO, but even a reasonable dual-class structure is not allowed post-IPO,” he said, referring to Facebook parent’s founder.

There are typically two or more types of shares with different voting rights in dual-class companies – one for founders and early investors, and another for other shareholders with fewer rights.

We did not receive a response from Tesla immediately.

The compensation package Musk received is the subject of a lawsuit. In 2018, Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta sued Musk and the board, seeking to prove Musk obtained an excessive compensation package without working full-time at the EV maker in exchange for his power.

The pending verdict is holding back discussions over Musk’s new compensation package, Musk said on X.

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