Norway fund ‘not cool’ for voting down my £45bn pay, moans Elon Musk

Elon Musk has called an investor’s decision to vote against his £45billion Tesla pay package ‘not cool’.

The world’s richest man is facing an investor backlash when his pay at the electric vehicle maker is put to a vote on Thursday.

And Tesla’s eighth largest shareholder, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, became the latest to say it would vote against the pay award.

In a post on X, the social media platform he owns, Musk hit back and said this was ‘not cool’.

He added: ‘If they actually surveyed their constituents, they would discover overwhelming support in favour. 

Cash plea: Tesla boss Elon Musk is facing an investor backlash when his mammoth £45bn pay package is put to a vote on Thursday

So far, roughly 90 per cent of retail shareholders who have voted have voted in favor of both resolutions. The public sentiment is unequivocally supportive.’

In January, a Delaware court ruled Tesla’s board had not acted in investors’ interests when agreeing the deal. 

Shareholders are voting for the second time on the plan on Thursday. The pay deal, which was set in 2018, was the biggest ever in US corporate history.

Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which operates Norway’s £1.34billion, said over the weekend that ‘we remain concerned about the total size of the award, the structure given performance triggers, dilution, and lack of mitigation of key person risk’.

But it did acknowledge ‘the significant value generated under Musk’s leadership since the grant date in 2018’.

Shares in the electric car company have dropped 40 per cent this year amid concerns about Musk’s own erratic behaviour. 

But investors who are supportive of Musk’s pay award include Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust