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Musk Expresses Desire For More Control In Tesla Amidst The Company's AI Advancements

AInvestTuesday, Jan 16, 2024 3:00 am ET
1min read

Tesla's CEO Elon Musk recently expressed a strong desire to gain greater control of Tesla in a series of posts on the X platform.

On Monday, Musk stated he would prefer to develop artificial intelligence (AI) products outside of Tesla if he doesn't have 25% of voting control. He further explained that his new compensation plan is not aimed at increasing his income, but rather to gain more shares and ensure an appropriate voting influence in Tesla.

I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control, the CEO posted on X. If I have 25%, it means I am influential but can be overridden if twice as many shareholders vote against me vs for me. At 15% or lower, the for/against ratio to override me makes a takeover by dubious interests too easy, Musk said in his post.

Musk also stated, that to achieve this goal, he thinks a dual-class voting structure is okay, but he is being told it is impossible to achieve post-IPO in Delaware. Currently, Musk is having an ongoing suitcase regarding Tesla's compensation plans for him in the Delaware chancery court.

In a subsequent post, Musk also wrote, It's weird that a crazy multi-class share structure like Meta has, which gives the next 20+ generations of Zuckerberg control, is fine pre-IPO, but even a reasonable dual-class is not allowed post-IPO.

As Tesla's largest single shareholder, Musk did not elaborate further on his thoughts, but the world's wealthiest person is grappling with shareholder dissatisfaction on a range of issues, from Tesla's succession plan for the CEO position to accusations that his work on X has distracted him.

According to data collected by the media, the current CEO of Tesla owns over 12% of the company's shares. In 2022, he sold many of his shares in order to finance his $44 billion buyout of Twitter, which he later renamed X.

Now, it seems like Musk wants to regain his controlling power in Tesla due to his concern over the development of AI in the company.

In fact, Musk has long believed that advanced AI technology could be the most disruptive technology in history. Meanwhile, he also warned that AI may pose risks to the public and has called for appropriate regulations in the development of the AI industry to minimize potential catastrophic consequences.

However, he and his companies have never stopped their pursuit of AI: Last year, he established an AI company called X.AI in Nevada and launched TruthGPT to compete with the market's blazing ChatGPT. He is the sole director of the company and Jared Birchall, the managing director of his family office serves as the board secretary.


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