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Undaunted by fresh scandals, Elon Musk is celebrating what he says is an early triumph in the Tesla shareholder vote
But it looks like something is finally going his way.
The billionaire said on Wednesday night that the shareholder votes to pass his $56 billion pay package and to reincorporate Tesla in Texas are “passing by wide margins.”
“Thanks for your support!!” Musk said in an X post.
It’s unclear where Musk obtained the screenshots he included in his X post. However, the final results of the vote will be announced at a shareholder meeting at Tesla’s headquarters in Austin on Thursday.
Winning both votes will be a huge boost for Musk, who has pulled out all the stops to woo Tesla shareholders. Aside from campaigning on his social media platform X, Musk has also offered shareholders the opportunity to go on a personally guided tour of Tesla’s Gigafactory in Texas.
Musk even sought to turn what’s been widely viewed as a disadvantage — running half a dozen companies simultaneously —into an advantage.
The billionaire spent his weekend pitching shareholders on the benefits of having Tesla as a part of his sprawling business empire, also known as the “Muskonomy.”
He’s also argued that a Musk-led Tesla would not only allow the EV giant to use technology from his other companies, and grant shareholders access to his future IPOs too.
“I’ve mentioned something like this before, but if any of my companies goes public, we will prioritize other longtime shareholders of my other companies, including Tesla,” Musk said on Saturday.
“Loyalty deserves loyalty,” he added.
But Musk’s overtures to shareholders ran into a speed bump on Tuesday after The Wall Street Journal published an extensive story about his sexual advances to female employees at his rocket company, SpaceX.
And a day later, Musk was hit with a lawsuit from eight former SpaceX employees.
The lawsuit, filed in California, accuses Musk and SpaceX of wrongfully terminating employees after they raised concerns about sexual harassment and gender discrimination.
Representatives for Musk and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.