Tesla Board Urged to Set Musk's Political Ambitions Guidelines

Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives has called on the Tesla board to promptly establish guidelines for CEO Elon Musk's future political ambitions and related activities. Ives underscored the importance of Musk remaining as CEO for at least the next five years, highlighting his crucial role in the company's autonomous driving and robotics endeavors. Ives and his team suggested a new compensation plan for Musk, focused on incentives, which would elevate his voting power to around 25%. The board could form a special committee to develop strategies and proxy statements, to be voted on by Tesla shareholders at the next annual meeting. Ives noted, "This will also secure Musk's position as Tesla's CEO for the coming years, and we anticipate he will remain in the role until at least 2030."

According to Ives' proposal, Musk's new compensation plan should clearly define the time commitment he must make to Tesla's operations, along with several basic rules. A special oversight committee within the board would be responsible for determining whether Musk violates the terms of the compensation plan. Essentially, the Tesla board would not interfere with Musk's charitable donations but could monitor whether his political aspirations and related activities hinder his duties as CEO.

Wedbush maintains an "outperform" rating for Tesla, with a target price of $500. Ives stated, "We believe Tesla and Nvidia are the two leading companies in the physical AI sector globally, and Musk will be the core driving force behind Tesla's success—just the autonomous driving business alone could bring Tesla a $1 trillion growth opportunity."