Norway’s oil fund to vote against Elon Musk’s $1tn pay deal at Tesla

**Norway’s oil fund to vote against Elon Musk’s $1tn pay deal at Tesla** *World’s largest sovereign wealth fund is a top-10 investor at US electric vehicle maker* https://www.ft.com/content/bf6e3961-e1b6-4406-afd8-98bdd91d8130 The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund will vote against Tesla chief executive Elon Musk’s $1tn pay package, saying it is worried about the size of the deal. Norway’s $2.1tn oil fund, which is a top-10 Tesla shareholder with a stake of 1.1 per cent, said on Tuesday that while it appreciated “the significant value created under Mr Musk’s visionary role” it would vote against his performance award. “We are concerned about the total size of the award, dilution, and lack of mitigation of key person risk — consistent with our views on executive compensation,” it said two days before the electric-car maker’s annual meeting on November 6. “We will continue to seek constructive dialogue with Tesla on this and other topics.” Tesla chair Robyn Denholm has characterised the vote as essential to keeping Musk as the carmaker’s chief executive. Musk has publicly threatened to walk away if shareholders again block his pay package. The oil fund last year voted against Musk receiving what was then the biggest remuneration package in US corporate history of $56bn. That pay deal was approved by shareholders in June but rejected for a second time by a Delaware court in December. Two shareholder advisory groups, Glass Lewis and ISS, have recommended that investors reject the latest $1tn pay deal, which is tied to ambitious milestones for share price and operational performance. A group of big pension funds has also issued an open letter opposing the pay plan, arguing that the board’s “relentless pursuit” of keeping its chief executive had damaged Tesla’s reputation and led to excessive pay. Norway’s oil fund has felt Musk’s wrath over pay before. Nicolai Tangen, the fund’s chief executive, invited Musk and other chief executives to dinner in Oslo earlier this year, but Musk turned the invite down after the oil fund voted against the $56bn pay deal. “When I ask you for a favour which I very rarely do, and you decline, then you should not ask me for one until you’ve done something above nothing to make amends. Friends are as friends do,” Musk told Tangen in October 2024 in a text message revealed by the fund under a freedom of information request. The Norwegian fund usually reveals its voting intentions five days before annual meetings. But it released its vote for Tesla only two days in advance, saying it wanted “to ensure all relevant information is available and able to be considered in our analysis”. Musk talked about the criticism of the pay deal on X, the social media site he owns, last month. “Tesla is worth more than all other automotive companies combined. Which of those CEOs would you like to run Tesla? It won’t be me,” he wrote. He separately called ISS and Glass Lewis “corporate terrorists”. The fortune of the world’s richest man is largely locked up in Tesla shares, which have more than tripled in value over the past five years as its market capitalisation has soared to $1.5tn. Denholm told the Financial Times last month that if Tesla could not retain Musk “it wouldn’t be a good outcome for shareholders” but added that she did not believe he would do anything “sudden and detrimental” if Tesla lost the vote.

>Norway’s oil fund has felt Musk’s wrath over pay before. Nicolai Tangen, the fund’s chief executive, invited Musk and other chief executives to dinner in Oslo earlier this year, but Musk turned the invite down after the oil fund voted against the $56bn pay deal. Yup, that will show them...

These funds should grow some balls and divest from TSLA. Elon only cares about the stock price

This doesnt matter, most of the board are his family and friends and they always support everything he says, so he will get it. I really don’t understand how there are still people who dont know this and believe in that company or the circus it has around it. It’s just a cashgrabber for him and his friends and family.

They are probably hedged

All the funds that's saying they are voting against the compensation should also mentioned they will divest if the compensation goes through.

It’s the same as the televangelists riding around in their limos and private jets, telling their flock to send them more money and guarantee their way to Heaven and eternal bliss—this is just the non-religious version of a grifting preacher-man, for our high-tech era.

I don’t quite agree. The prosperity gospel televangelists lie to their followers and pretend they’ll get rich too, in heaven. Musk at least owns companies that produce hardware technology that someone can drive themselves. There’s a realness. EDIT: seems like I’ve picked up strays from people who think I actually support Leon. My point was that he is not directly comparable to lying evangelical preachers who *cannot* in fact perform miracles; they grift entirely by word of mouth. The above commentator said Musk & preachers are “the same.” They’re similar, yes, but not the same. Tesla and SpaceX actually produce hardware tech, and that can make many people *believe in him*. Does pointing out this difference that mean I support either company? No. Just wanted to remind folks why this fact makes him *more dangerous* than the preachers…

I think that’s what’s going to happen. If the shareholders do approve this package, it’ll pump. After that, I think pension funds will start dumping their stock. One already did, some months back, in Pennsylvania, way too volatile etc. thing is will people like Blackrock and Vanguard follow. We’ve all been wondering, who will hit the exits first.

Blackrock and Vanguard, probably have hedges against it. Not sure about Pension Funds so much. That’s why, if, they start selling off, they’ll be the first. Imo, not FA.

Elon would need to 8x the company market cap to get this bonus. Which seems realistic for a company with sales in the dumps and about to lose half its revenue from selling carbon credits. Now its a taxi and robot company I guess.

Problem is that you cant simply divest it overnight. Positions held by Vanguard and Blackrock are sizeable at respectively c. 8% and 4% of all shares. When they start dumping, the price will tank and it will cause a domino effect. I’m 100% convinced the big investment funds have 24/7 monitoring on eachothers stock sales and are ready to jump. I do hope we will get a real life ‘Margin Call’ scenario where one of them will pull the trigger.

The stock will tank? I think I’m okay with that.

With so many Teslas on their roads, the Norwegians are probably pretty worried already that Musk will drag the company so deep that it has to cease its maintenance and support functions for a prolonged time in a bankruptcy. To them, Musk threatening to leave if he's voted against is likely more like a promise than a threat.

The "independent " Chair has made over USD 500 million selling her shares. The moment her options vest, she sells everything. Normally, when insiders sell shares it is a bad sign.

Yeah, every light is flashing "exit now".

Do they not understand how important he is to the past, present, and future of the company? They must not realize that. I’m sure once they learn, they’ll fully support the $1T, plus maybe a little something more just for himself.

I expect that the vast majority of shares that Vanguard and BlackRock hold are for the ETFs they provide. They would only start selling once TSLA is already on it's way down, to account for the smaller allocation in the indexes it's included in.

He doesn't understand public relations

You telling me vaporware is real? Cos that's where the valuation comes from. It's all about faith...

Why are pension funds even investing in something so financially unsound?

Yep. But can't quite get my head around whether a shrinking market cap would mean they sell, or it just makes up a smaller part of the index.

The board are accomplices. This company and it's mangement need to be RICO'd.

Apparently there are a lot of milestones on the way though. Most of which aren't that challenging.

Yes, they have to sell off slowly over time so they don't take a loss.

I voted against every board recommendation.

So am I. Its a problem for them, not us. :)

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>They would only start selling once TSLA is already on it's way down, to account for the smaller allocation in the indexes it's included in. That's not how that works. They would still want to own the same portion of the company, which is the same portion that they have of every company included in the index. The allocation would be smaller because the company is worth less, not because they own less of it.

The fund actually does own 1.71% of Hyundai Mobis Co Ltd, which is a larger portion than the 1.14% it owns of Tesla Inc.

Norway: Fuck you, I have money!

But maybe she has bills to pay? Duh

I think he doesn't care unless it makes him seem cool online.

Norway SWF is not allowed to sell because of index tracking constraints.

Fun fact: If it passes and he gets paid, its a transfer of about $2000 from each Norwegian to Musk (in dilution).

Thank god for Norway’s oil fund. Seriously — why do they heap money on Elon Musk?

I can’t believe a trillion dollar pay day is something that’s actually up for discussion. What a fucking world we live in.

Not sure why funds remain invested in tesla. Imagine you're telling your holder your shares are worth $1k. And if tesla nose dive, which it will, it could be 800. Its too volatile for funds. Do funds believe tesla going 1200 p/e? Uber is 15 p/e

>lie to their followers and pretend they’ll get rich too That's the investors.

Because investing in everything is long term more profitable than thinking you're smart enough to only make good investments.

> Tesla is worth more than all other automotive companies combined. Isn't that just beyond fucking absurd?

And that’s going so well for him…

Why are they still shareholders??

Damn, you just fucking nailed it man.

Board isn't the one making the decision, shareholders are.

Has Norways oil fund considered....idk....selling their stock and investing in someone who isnt Elon Musk? Just asking.

I guess Musk thinks he’s entitled to a pay package of 1/150 of the entire WORLD GDP. He’s a greedy, delusional clown.

flows in/out of the fund determine buys/sells. plus relative market caps on quarterly rebalancing

the fund owns 1-2% of everything on the face of the earth. pretty good for a nation of 5M people.

The large portfolios that want to sell, don't want that. They'll sell slowly, in small amounts so they don't jolt the price. The same method is used when buying shares too.

Don't forget about diners. That should be worth 2x to 3x all on its own!

Norwegians like money.

I mean, if they have the ability to tell him to fuck off by keeping it, I'm ok with it

For everything. But he gets 1% **of the company** for selling even fewer Teslas, and another 1% for FSD subscriptions (which is an easy number to goose).

Agreed

I don't think it is a coincidence that the biggest, most hated loser on the entire planet, is also the wealthiest.

Why does anyone need that much money?

He wants to rule over others with a robot army

Exactly, price stability is quite important in large investments. Suddenly buying up too many shares will only make it harder and costlier to buy more, and selling off in large amounts will see a capital flight and would make it further harder to sell off more.

I feel like the US stock market itself is illogical, stupid and way too much overvalued. Big Investors these days jump on any trendy stuff they see on social media and hype them up to pump up stock prices.

Tbh investing in Government Bonds seems to be a much better and safer option for something like Pension Funds. The returns are lower compared to stock market, but the risks are low too. anyways, it feels like there will be another huge crash due to the crazy AI hype going on for about 2 years.

Not really, most Japanese automakers are excluded in this.

Who doesn't?

Fundamentally, Musk's gospel - poverty-ending sentient robots, eternal life (for humanity) on Mars, is identical to the wish-fulfillment fantasies peddled by cult / mega-church preachers. Saying that Tesla makes cars is like saying the megachurch builds actual churches and prints songbooks. That is not the product.

Watching redditors cheer for an oil fund attacking the leader of an electric car company is absolutely hilarious. The cognitive dissonance among these people who are supposedly pro-environment must be crazy intense. It's all about supporting your "team" I guess. Principles be damned.

Blackrock said they would divest if it passed earlier today

Everyone but him and the Teslaphiles know it's stupid. But the dude spent $44 billion to make Twitter his kingdom, clearly there's no extent he won't go to.

We need more institutional investors to speak up and NOPE out of this scam of a company. This is the only way that it will collapse.

You must be one of the millions that doesn't think the Roman salutes were cool.

They will be able to buy cover PUTS to guranteed their exit at a set price.

Or if they get kicked out next year due to not being profitable for 4 quarters.

And soon to be an asteroid mining company and crypto treasury.

Yes it is! I have a model 3 and love it but Tesla is not tethered to reality when it comes to its valuation. Musk's greed seems to know no limit.

Long term taking no risk \*is the risk\*.

Both. It's not just ignorance  He IS that stupid too

He was forced to buy it after he tried to troll them and cause huge financial damage  Though he is an addict

how exactly did they attack mr. musk?

His troll was making a buyout offer. He's been in enough trouble with the SEC on the past that he should have known how that would end. If he was trolling anyone, it was himself.

I hope he gets it and has to give it all away as he rots in prison.

They're voting against his compensation.

yes because its insanely large.. anyway that's their prerogative and its not an attack to vote how you wish

I hope he enjoys his money now. Once Trump is out, Musk is going to prison. Tesla will be the subject of a RICO investigation for its almost comically corrupt financial dealings.

He also reincorperated in texas after his last pay package got shut down in Delaware.  Under the previous vote, he claimed he was not voting his ~12% shares so the shareholders could decide. This was a lie- he was prohibited from doing so under Delaware law.  Now that he pulled the company to Texas, he is voting his shares in favor of his own pay package. The move was about limiting smalls hareholder power and allowing him to extract value from TSLA, just like he did with solar city in 2018.

Most shareholders dont vote. Those that do often vote down the ballot for board recommendations.  Both Musk (12%) and the BOD voted their shares in this.

It's oil money .

After each Norwegian makes $12k ....

It’s oil money not blown on rolls royces

As somebody who is very bullish on Tesla i wholeheartedly agree with you.

The large majority of countries by far prefer to spend money rather than saving up a large amount in a sovereign wealth fund.

Fair point, but I suspect he’s coming for all of it in the end.