Who backed Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package? Here’s how Tesla shareholders voted on CEO’s compensation last year
We’re only six days away from Tesla’s Annual General Meeting and the decision on CEO Elon Musk’s $1 trillion compensation package. Last month, the electric vehicle giant’s board of directors proposed a groundbreaking compensation package to motivate Musk to remain actively involved with Tesla for the next 10 years, and shareholders are ready to vote on it.
But many critics, including Democratic US state leaders and union officials, criticized the massive package and launched a campaign to reject the proposal, Reuters reported.
Shareholders are scheduled to vote on November 6.
It added that there have been various initiatives to prevent earlier record payouts to Musk, such as the $56 billion compensation plan for 2018 that investors reapproved last year despite ongoing legal challenges.
Here’s a look at Tesla’s five largest shareholders, excluding Musk, and how they voted on approving the CEO’s 2018 pay package last year.
Who are Tesla’s largest shareholders?
Pioneer
According to Nasdaq data, investment company Vanguard has 251,390,681 shares in Tesla, worth $116 billion, as of June 30, 2025. The company owns 7 percent of Tesla, making it the largest shareholder after Musk, who owns 13 percent. Vanguard voted against Musk’s pay package last year, despite opposing it for 2018 due to its potential size, Reuters reported.
Black Rock
BlackRock, which reportedly owns a nearly 6% stake in Tesla and more than $95 billion worth of shares, had 205,962,777 shares as of June 30, 2025. In a statement last year, BlackRock said the company voted in favor of Musk’s pay package.
State Street
Global financial services company State Street is Tesla’s third-largest shareholder, excluding Elon Musk. The company has $52 billion worth of stock with 113,418,687 shares. State Street has reportedly voted against Musk’s massive pay package in 2024, according to Tesla investor Sawyer Merritt’s X post.
Geode Capital Management
The asset manager had approximately $29.9 million worth of shares in Tesla and 64,767,993 shares as of June 30, 2025. Geode Capital owns approximately 1.8% stake in Tesla. Last year, the company voted to compensate Musk.
JP Morgan Chase
Investment bank JP Morgan Chase owns 46,015,610 shares in the EV giant, valued at $21.2 billion as of June 30, 2025. Merritt noted that the bank, which owns over 1% of shares in Tesla, voted in favor of Musk’s salary package.
How is Elon Musk’s salary package structured?
In September, Tesla’s board proposed a $1 trillion compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk. The payment is contingent on increasing the company’s market value from roughly $1.1 trillion to $8.5 trillion and achieving various operational goals and objectives, Reuters reported.
The board plans to grant Musk up to 423.7 million performance-based restricted shares, representing roughly 12% of the company’s existing shares. These will be distributed into 12 equal slices.
It also outlines 12 market cap targets, culminating in the $2 trillion mark, followed by nine raises of $500 billion each and two $1 trillion milestones for a total of $8.5 trillion. The EV maker has set 12 operational milestones, such as introducing robot axes and robots and increasing profits measured by adjusted EBITDA.
Musk’s high salary fuels criticism
Proxy advisor Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) has urged shareholders to vote against the plan. On October 17, ISS expressed concerns about Elon Musk’s attention being split between Tesla and five businesses, including Neuralink, SpaceX, Boring Company, and xAI.
Tesla denied the ISP allegations, and Elon Musk said on the company’s earnings call: “There needs to be enough voting control to have a strong impact, but not so much that I can’t be fired if I go crazy.”
