Nasdaq takes off as investors ignore Fed, Tesla rises ahead of Elon Musk’s payout decision

Report by Yasmine Khurram from Yahoo Finance:

Tesla (TSLA) shareholders today answer a $56 billion question at their annual meeting: Should Elon Musk’s record pay package be reinstated after a Delaware judge struck down an earlier package?

“I vote yes without enthusiasm; “I’m voting yes in principle,” early investor Ibrahim Al-Husseini told Yahoo Finance. Personal feelings aside, he said Tesla should respect the 2018 package that was rolled out.

“That was the deal. Elon has achieved something big, so he should get his compensation.”

Al-Husseini, founder of venture capital firm FullCycle, invested in the electric car company in a Series C funding round in 2006. Al-Husseini said he steadily sold the majority of his position in the decade that followed.

“We rode the stock through a trillion-dollar valuation. A lot of wealth has been created, and his compensation is set by the board,” Al-Husseini added, though he believes most of his peers will vote no this time.

But individual investors currently own about 40% of Tesla shares, and Musk claims they are subsidizing his salary. Last weekend, the billionaire posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “nearly 90% of individual shareholders who voted” voted in favor of the package, adding that “public sentiment is unequivocally supportive.”

Tesla shares rose 4% on Thursday.