Elon Musk isn’t waiting to declare victory.
The Tesla CEO took to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, to claim that the EV maker’s shareholders had voted to reapprove his controversial $56 billion pay package, according to Bloomberg. That wasn’t all, though. He also said they had voted to move the company’s state of incorporation to Texas.
Musk’s post was made on Wednesday night, hours before voting on the two measures actually closed ahead Tesla’s annual meeting in Austin on Thursday. The executive shared two graphs that showing vote totals for both measures and wrote: “Both Tesla shareholder resolutions are currently passing by wide margins!”
In January, a Delaware judge voided the multi-billion dollar pay package that had helped make Musk the richest human in history. Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery found the award, which had aggressive targets for performance, to be excessive and cited conflicts of interest among the company’s board and disclosure failures as reasons for the decision. The ruling also called for the executive to return the unnecessary pay.
Musk was quick to make his displeasure about the unexpected ruling known. He posted on X that one should “Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware,” and shared screenshots of a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “Delaware Is Trying to Drive Away Corporations.” In the months since, he and the Tesla board have attempted to rally support for the two measures among institutional investors and shareholders. The company has run several ads related to the vote on X, while current and former employees have also voiced their support for Musk in recent days.
Regardless, the victory is more symbolic than anything else, according to Bloomberg. The vote doesn’t have legal power, though shareholder approval could help in an appeal or rehearing. In a filing, the company noted that it “cannot predict with certainty how a vote to ratify Musk’s compensation would be treated under Delaware law.”
Musk doesn’t seem to be the only one excited by the result of the votes. Wall Street greeted the news, premature as it may have been, with open arms on Thursday morning, according to CNBC. As of press time, Tesla’s stock was up over seven percent to $184.71 per share in morning trading.
