Elon Musk wants more control over Tesla, as it pushes the company into advanced technologies beyond car manufacturing.
In a tweet on his platform Twitter/X he wrote, “I’m uncomfortable growing Tesla into a leader in AI and robotics without 25 percent voting control. It’s enough to have influence, but not too much so that I cannot be overturned. I’d rather build products outside Tesla unless that is the case. You don’t appear to understand that Tesla has a number of startups.
He said: “At 15% or lower, the ratio for/against me makes an override by dubious interest too easy.” This implied that the value created by him in the company could be taken by asset managers with large stakes.
After selling shares to pay for the $44 Billion acquisition of Twitter, the social media platform rebranded as X, the billionaire’s stake in the electric vehicle business fell from 22 to 13 percent.
The company is not only focused on electric cars, but also works in other areas. For example, they are developing a supercomputer named Tesla Dojo and building artificial intelligence (AI), which will be used to power driverless vehicles.
It analyzes information from vast databases collected by cameras and sensor on millions of cars. Tesla says that Dojo will be one of the most powerful computers in the world by 2024. It was put into production last July. It will spend over $1 billion on the project this year.
Tesla is developing a robot that can perform repetitive, boring, and unsafe tasks. Musk recently posted a video showing the robot folding a t-shirt.
Dan Ives of Wedbush said that the board and top investors are aware of the “key man risk” with Musk. This is especially true in the area AI, as the AI revolution is on its way for the tech sector and Tesla.
He said: “At the end of it all, we believe that the board and Musk can resolve this issue within the next three-six months and that ultimately all AI projects will remain at Tesla.”
Musk’s Tesla salary hasn’t been updated since 2018. The company was sued in 2018 over a compensation agreement that could have earned Musk up to $56 billion if he met company growth targets. The verdict is still pending.