this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2025
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I just don’t feel comfortable building a robot army here, and then being ousted because of some asinine recommendations from ISS and Glass Lewis, who have no f**king clue. I mean those guys are corporate terrorists. Lemme explain the core problem here, so many of the passive funds vote along the lines of what ISS and Glass Lewis recommend. Now, they have made many terrible recommendations in the past that if those recommendations had been followed would have been extremely destructive to the future of the company. Now, If you’ve got passive funds that essentially defer responsibility for the vote to Glass Lewis and ISS, then you can have extremely disastrous consequences for a publicly traded company if too much of the publicly traded company is controlled by index funds. It’s de facto controlled by Glass Lewis and ISS. This is a fundamental problem for corporate governance, because they’re not voting along the lines that are actually good for shareholders. That’s the big issue, I mean, that’s what it comes down to. ISS Glass Lewis corporate terrorism. -Elon Musk, Tesla Q3 shareholder conference call, October 22, 2025

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[–] Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 8 hours ago

I fucking hate this guy got off the hook. He fell out of the media so fast it makes me sick to think how complete the ruling class's power is.

[–] lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com 7 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

I learned some advisors at firms who usually follow Glass Lewis recommendations are taking unusual steps to request investor input specifically on Tesla. Apparently enough passive investors are dissatisfied enough to want a direct say on Tesla.

It was interesting to learn about shareholder voting.

  • Apparently, shareholders get a non-binding vote on executive pay due to say-on-pay legislation.
  • The SEC carries juicy documents on shareholder voting proposals & letters to shareholders by other shareholders urging them how to vote.

Voting proposals from shareholders & their letters reveal great dissatisfaction with Tesla.

Major shareholders (investment groups, pension managers, state treasurers & comptrollers) wrote a scathing letter urging other shareholders to vote against directors up for re-election & to vote against proposals the company favors.

We write urging you to oppose the reelection of Directors Ira Ehrenpreis, Joe Gebbia, and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson (Proposal 1), the Amended and Restated 2019 Equity Incentive Plan (Proposal 3), and the 2025 CEO Performance Award (Proposal 4) at Tesla’s Annual Meeting on November 6, 2025.

Since the last annual meeting, we have unfortunately witnessed both the erratic performance of Tesla, Inc. (the “Company” or “Tesla”) and the Board’s failure to provide meaningful real-time oversight of management. The Board’s relentless pursuit of retaining its CEO seems to have harmed the Company’s reputation, led to extraordinarily high levels of executive compensation, and delayed progress on meeting key goals like full self-driving (FSD). The Board, a majority of which is made up of directors with close ties to the CEO, now asks for Tesla shareholders to approve a series of proposals that grant it broad discretion to execute an estimated $1 trillion pay package, as well as grant awards through a new reserve created specifically for Elon Musk. These pay packages provide so much discretion to Tesla’s Board that shareholders cannot be confident of impartial treatment. In summary, there is an urgent need to address these issues to preserve long-term shareholder value for all Tesla shareholders, which we believe justifies voting against all directors up for election this year, as well as the Amended and Restated 2019 Equity Incentive Plan (the “A&R 2019 Equity Plan”) and the 2025 CEO Performance Award (the “2025 Performance Award”). We believe that approval of these items is not in the economic or financial interest of Tesla shareholders for the reasons set out below.

Their clarifications are interesting: they highlight issues with the conduct of the board & CEO

  • declining company performance (sudden decline in sales) & waning competitiveness with rivals like BYD & other manufacturers
  • board's lack of independence from CEO jeopardizes shareholder value
    • board members are CEO, friends of CEO, or have served long tenures
    • the CEO lacks focus on the stable, sustainable returns of the company & its shareholders while the board still awards him extraordinary pay packages & shares at discount
      • has leadership roles in several companies
      • leadership of US DOGE negatively impacted company’s performance & brand
    • the CEO fails to focus the company's own resources on the company (diverting them to other companies), and the board "seems uninterested in getting concrete commitments from Mr. Musk, and unwilling to develop a CEO succession plan of their own"
    • the board of directors is overpaid by earning 8 figure compensation when the "Average director compensation in the S&P 500 in 2024 was $327,096.13"
  • the board ignores mandates from previous shareholder votes, and acts to weaken accountability (supermajority voting rules, not all board seats up for reelection each year) & erode shareholders rights (adopted a Texas law to increase requirements for shareholders to sue the board for breach of fiduciary duty prohibitively far above federal standards)
  • their proposal for a $1 trillion award in shares to the CEO lacks stringent conditions
    • undemanding product goals
    • vague terms
    • conditions open to board discretion

    Given the Board’s historical willingness to allow Tesla to commit substantial resources to projects that are personally beneficial to Mr. Musk but that fail to produce benefits for Tesla shareholders – most notably the Solar City acquisition – we lack the confidence that this Board will only recognize the accomplishment of these goals by the CEO in the fullest and most demanding way.

  • the award increases power of an unaccountable CEO at substantial expense to shareholders of earning & voting power.

outside Tesla shareholders could experience a dramatic long-term dilution in both their voting power and the value of their equity relative to opportunity cost

If Tesla were to experience similar ups and downs over the next decade, outside shareholder value would increase at 10.8% per year, inferior to the price return for the S&P 500 from August 2015 to August 2025.

If Proposals 3 and 4 are approved, this year may be one of the last times that public shareholders have a meaningful voice in the Company and its leadership given the level of dilution that is likely to take place. Beyond that, the Company’s own disclosures make clear that the motivation to deliver these pay packages is driven by increasing Mr. Musk’s voting power, with no formal commitment to focus his time, attention, and Tesla’s own resources on Tesla. Further, we lack confidence that this non-independent Board can oversee the CEO toward a future that maintains stable and sustainable returns for Tesla shareholders.

This SEC 14A filing lists all the proposals up for shareholder vote. A good number of shareholder proposals the board opposes concern board accountability to shareholders

  • assert shareholder rights: either repealing restrictions or safeguarding them from restrictions enabled by Texas that would disqualify the vast majority of shareholders from submitting proposals or suing the board for breach of fiduciary duties
  • elect each director annually
  • require only simple majority approvals.

The others concern better public reporting & oversight on senior executive pay & transparent audits on child labor dependence throughout the supply chain.

To promote an independent board of directors accountable to shareholders & to restore shareholder rights, I suspect Glass Lewis and ISS will vote against all board members & company-favored proposals and vote for all shareholder-favored proposals. Seems about right to follow their recommendations & oppose Musk on this.

[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago

Why this people never get cancer or horrible accidents?

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 7 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Fortunately he isn't going to build a robot army. His cars can barely follow the road so I can't imagine his robots would present much in the way of of a threat, except quite possibly in the extent that they would stand on your foot although even then they'd probably fall over.

There has never been another individual who's ability and ego are so at odds

[–] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 8 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Why do they even need musk? It's not like he is lead engineer or chief of design.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Marketing and fund raising. Doesn't matter how much you, well we, hate him he's still genuinely excellent at it. Sure it's absolutely destructive to... literally everything except his bank account, but it works. Very annoying.

[–] CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world 1 points 23 minutes ago

But is he actually particularly stand out at that or is he just leveraging his pre-existing family wealth and connections to do so? In another universe a lot of these people are deadend used car salesman types that no one takes seriously.

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 4 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Brooks (Roomba, Baxter, MIT, etc) says it's sill not enough https://rodneybrooks.com/why-todays-humanoids-wont-learn-dexterity/

If you skim through his piece, at least watch the 2x 30s videos, really drive the point IMHO.

[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 12 points 15 hours ago

I just don’t feel comfortable building a robot army here, and then being ousted

Why would you ever have any control whatsoever in the first place? Do other arms manufacturers have a control for their missiles?

[–] minorkeys@lemmy.world 10 points 16 hours ago

And none of those shareholders vote along lines that are good for society. You're going to probably kill us all someday with some bullshit business decision or another, directly or otherwise.

[–] Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 2 points 11 hours ago

Another chuck e cheese token recipient in the making

[–] abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 58 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

hey errr maybe the richest man in the world with nazi views should not have a robot army to begin with?

[–] MutantTailThing@lemmy.world 10 points 17 hours ago

Any day now Tesla is gonna be renamed Hyperion

[–] lechekaflan@lemmy.world 6 points 15 hours ago

Fucking egomaniac.

[–] SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 4 points 16 hours ago

Lmao this clown should be peeled

[–] beejjorgensen@lemmy.sdf.org 38 points 1 day ago (1 children)

But I was told that rich people like musk and Trump weren't swayed by money because they had enough... 😂

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Sociopathic Oligarchs have a serious form of OCD/ Hoarding Disorder, that makes them crave even more money, no matter how much they have.

If they were hoarding cats, or rusty cars, or old refrigerators, or piles of scrap metal, etc., the authorities would intervene, and get them help for their mental illness.

But if they are hoarding money on a historically mind-blowing scale, they call them a successful businessman, and give them government grants and tax breaks.

[–] beejjorgensen@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 2 hours ago

The kleptocracy in action.

[–] CandleTiger@programming.dev 8 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

If they were hoarding cats, or rusty cars, or old refrigerators, or piles of scrap metal, etc., the authorities would intervene, and get them help for their mental illness.

This is a common misconception.

“The authorities” (USA viewpoint) are really extremely unlikely to intervene in any way at all with hoarding, and even more extremely unlikely to provide any kind of useful mental health intervention.

If the hoarding is causing a public safety hazard then the authorities may eventually start fining the hoarder until they do whatever is minimally required to clear the hazard.

Much much more likely, if the hoarder is renting, the landlord may evict them which is one of the many paths to homelessness.

But by far the most common outcome is that the authorities do nothing whatsoever to stop or help with harmful hoarding behavior.

In this way, crazy aunt Florence and Elon Musk are similar.

[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 2 points 1 hour ago

Perhaps, but it doesn't change the fact that these people have a very serious mental illness so massive that it literally affects the rest of the world. They must be dealt with properly, not encouraged to lean into their destructive mental illness by funding their follies with taxpayer money.

[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 20 points 23 hours ago

I had to check to see if I was eating an Onion. Turns out, Ol' ketamine fried Musky truly did say all of this.

[–] Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 39 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This guy is so desperate to be called the first trillionaire, it's just really pathetic.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 points 8 hours ago

putin already beat him there, by stealing russia economy.

[–] _stranger_@lemmy.world 4 points 17 hours ago (1 children)
[–] ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 4 points 16 hours ago

I'll do it for half of your offer. $250 Billion is plenty for me to pull off a robot army.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 9 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

I want to go back to the 80s...

[–] jali67@lemmy.zip 11 points 17 hours ago

Now is fine. We just need to forcefully put these wealthy fucks in their place.

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 8 points 17 hours ago

To stop Reagan from becoming President, right?

Right?

[–] tibi@lemmy.world 15 points 23 hours ago (4 children)

He has enough money to pay an actual army

Apparently we don’t even need to pay the actual army. We can just revoke their paychecks and force them to keep working anyways. Nothing can go wrong with that, right?

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 23 points 1 day ago (2 children)

LOL

Elmo Musk literally is not an engineer or even understands basic engineering. All the real world engineering done at his company is done by actual engineers

What is his part in all those processes at jos companies, you ask?

Lying.

Literally lying. Its the only talent that Mr. Elmo has. Its the one thing he constantly does, at levels comparable to Trump.

Most claims he makes about any of his companies products are just plain lies. Tesla full self driving? Not even close, and by now i wonder if they're actually capable of getting a Tesla off a parking lot without crashing it, let alone do a full cross country.

Same for SpaceX, where we definitely will go to Mars!never mind that reaching low earth orbit is about 1% of that task and he still can't do that without blowing up his starshits. Hey, at least they blew up a banana over the Indian ocean.

Wanna know what Elmo's contributions are?

Cyber truck.

Launching the car that was supposed to be for the founder of Tesla into low earth orbit just to he an asshole

The "idea" to use intercontinental ballistic rockets to transport people to the other side of the world "in 30 minutes". This one I really really really do want him to try because tickets are CEO only expensive and nothing would make me laugh more than a bunch of stealing assholes all paying a million or so to just blow up on the launchpad.

Talking about launchpads, remember that Florida launch with a starship with a boat load of engines that also ~~failed~~ was a complete success because "it left the launchpad" and anything beyond that was extras? Yeah, that launchpad was absolutely obliterated, cars parked various kilometers away got pelted by concrete debris, an ecological area got polluted, and the launchpad was left in rubble because Elmo decided that flame diverters, you know, those things used since like the sixties of the previous century really weren't necessary.

That is of course keeping in mind that he US tax payer paid 3 billion to take the US to the moon and well, that too is about at 1-2% mission completed, there is nothing remotely ready.

Do I even have to mention Hyperloop? "Its just another air hockey table, its not that hard!"

Meanwhile he keeps asking Tesla for a trillion dollars as well, even though he just got a gold package from Tesla that was light the highest payout in human history, even though Tesla makes a fraction of the cars that large brands make, ans even though he sent the extremely overvalued company (overvalued thanks to his constant lying about aaaalll the great things that are right there ready, just around the corner if you only pay me more money!!) right of a cliff with his Nazi antics combined with the laughable Nazirustbucket he designed..

This is the guy asking for just a trillion dollar bro, I will make this work, bro! TRUST ME!

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

a well known fact is upper managment shields the employees and the company from Elons meddling in thier internal workings affairs. at least for spacex.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 hours ago

As far as they can, that is

That rocket launch that obliterated a launchpad was Elmo's meddling, for example

[–] CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You forgot to mention, that was was fired from PayPal(?) for being incompetent.

And the engineers he hires are either not that great, or (more likely) are having to play fast and loose due to unrealistic expectations. Like the original hyperloop demo that was setup years ago for a competition, instantly rusted and was secured poorly. It's since been destroyed.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 8 points 17 hours ago

Yeah, the PayPal one is so spot on.

He had a company that I guess was like CitySearch that no one ever heard of and managed to win a lottery of selling it to Compaq who thought they had to do something in this whole dotcom thing.

Then he founded 'x.com', a failure of an online bank while Paypal took off. Then, somehow, in the wake of being merged in he talked the company into letting him be in charge, despite his company pretty much the relative failure in that relationship, and he nearly tanked it before being kicked out. Despite this for a long time he got credit as 'the paypal guy', despite his only contribution being almost tanking it after losing to it initiallly in the market. Again, won the lottery because he had such a share and eBay tossed so much money at it.

He's supremely successful at taking credit from others when things work out.

[–] dan1101@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I hope he doesn't start any trade federations and blockade Naboo.

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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 11 points 23 hours ago

He needs? Go pick yourself up by your bootstraps. Somehow I don’t think he means $1T of his own money.

[–] Simulation6@sopuli.xyz 3 points 17 hours ago

Is he revering to the self driving Teslas when he says 'robot army'?

[–] amos@mander.xyz 64 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (7 children)

I just want this guy to die. Oh, I will be so happy when it happens.

And all the other ones as well.

[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 9 points 22 hours ago

A good chunk of shareholders deferring to public agencies that recommend based on societal good is imo the only way capitalism could “work”. Of course Elon is against it.

[–] cyrano@piefed.social 87 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Me too Elon, I'm not feeling comfortable with you building a robot army

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[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 day ago (3 children)

So he's basically Justin Hammer at this point.

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