Musk, With 13% Of Equity, Wants More Control Of Tesla

Elon Musk might be the face of Tesla, blurring his own reputation and the identity of the brand.

Musk, the richest person in the world, was quick to point out that this wasn’t about the money. Rather, he was pushing for greater decision-making power. I Illustration: DonkeyHotey Flickr

But as closely tied as the man is to the company and its $700-billion-dollar valuation, there is one thing he doesn’t have that some of his other tech industry peers enjoy: More control.

Musk has publicly demanded that Tesla’s board give him even greater influence over the company by boosting his stake to 25%, or else he’d continue to develop artificial intelligence (AI) tech somewhere else, as reported by Hamza Shaban for Yahoo Finance.

Musk, the richest person in the world, was quick to point out that this wasn’t about the money. Rather, he was pushing for greater decision-making power.

In fact, he even floated the idea of receiving another class of shares that would grant him more votes without diluting existing Tesla shares or forcing the company to hand over billions of dollars in extra compensation.

The dual-class share model is one enjoyed by Musk’s frequent rival, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who commands control of his company through super-voting stock. It appears Musk wants what Zuckerberg has.

But a look at the arrangement shows the limits of unchecked executive control and the double-edged nature of creating unequal voting rights. In short, Musk envies Zuckerberg’s situation, the same Zuckerberg who agreed to fight Musk to settle their differences, and the latter chickened out.

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