In a filing with federal regulators early Wednesday, the company said it would ask shareholders to vote on both issues during its annual meeting on June 13. Photo via Getty Images

Tesla will ask shareholders to reinstate a $56 billion compensation package for CEO Elon Musk that was rejected by a judge in Delaware this year, and to move the electric car maker’s corporate home from Delaware to Texas.

In a filing with federal regulators early Wednesday, the company said it would ask shareholders to vote on both issues during its annual meeting on June 13.

In January, Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick ruled that Musk is not entitled to a landmark compensation package awarded by Tesla’s board of directors that is potentially worth about $55.8 billion over 10 years starting in 2018.

Five years ago, a Tesla shareholder lawsuit alleged that the pay package should be voided because it was dictated by Musk and was the product of sham negotiations with directors who were not independent of him.

Musk said a month after the judge's ruling that he would try to move Tesla's corporate listing to Texas, where he has already moved company headquarters.

Almost immediately after the judge's ruling, Musk did exactly that with Neuralink, his privately held brain implant company, moving its corporate home from Delaware to Nevada.

In a letter to shareholders this week, Chairperson Robyn Denholm said that Musk has delivered on the growth it was looking for at the automaker, with Tesla meeting all of the stock value and operational targets in a 2018 CEO pay package that was approved by shareholders.

“Because the Delaware Court second-guessed your decision, Elon has not been paid for any of his work for Tesla for the past six years that has helped to generate significant growth and stockholder value,” Denholm wrote. “That strikes us — and the many stockholders from whom we already have heard — as fundamentally unfair, and inconsistent with the will of the stockholders who voted for it.”

Tesla posted record deliveries of more than 1.8 million electric vehicles worldwide in 2023, according to a regulatory filing. But the value its shares has eroded quickly this year as sales of electric vehicles soften.

Future growth is in doubt and it may be a challenge to get shareholders to back a fat pay package in an environment where competition has increased worldwide and demand for electric vehicle sales is fading.

Tesla's shares have lost more than one third of their value this year as massive price cuts have failed to draw more buyers. The company said it delivered 386,810 vehicles from January through March, nearly 9% fewer than it sold in the same period last year.

Shareholders also will be asked to cast a nonbinding advisory vote on 2023 executive compensation.

But the proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission does not address Musk’s demand to own 25% of Tesla shares for him to pursue artificial intelligence and robotics at the company. At present he owns 20.5% of the company.

In January Musk challenged the Tesla board in a post on X, the social media platform he now owns, to come up with a new compensation package. Unless he gets 25%, he wrote that he’d prefer to build products outside of Tesla, apparently with another company.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, who is normally bullish on Tesla, said in an interview that the filing doesn't address multiple issues including Musk's future compensation.

“It's the elephant in the room because Musk has threatened over X, and it's been a massive overhang" for Tesla stock, Ives said.

Musk, he said, needs to commit to being Tesla CEO for three to five years and developing artificial intelligence with the company. When the company announces first-quarter earnings next week, Musk needs to spell out plans for future growth, including the status of the Model 2, a small EV that costs about $25,000, Ives said. Otherwise, dark days lie ahead, he said.

“Investors are not just taking Musk's word,” he said. “There's a feeling like the plane is crashing into the ocean and the board is focused on their own salted peanuts.”

Musk has less leverage than he did in January because of this year's stock slide. “He went from Cinderella story to the Nightmare on Elm Street in a matter of six months,” Ives said.

At the time of the Delaware court ruling, Musk’s package was worth more than $55.8 billion, but the court may have cost the mercurial CEO over $10 billion due to the company’s stock slide this year. The filing said Musk’s 2018 compensation was worth $44.9 billion at the close of trading on April 12.

Since last year, Tesla has cut prices as much as $20,000 on some models. The price cuts caused used electric vehicle values to drop and clipped Tesla’s profit margins.

This week, Tesla said it was letting about 10% of its workers go, about 14,000 people.

In the filing, Tesla's board wrote that the decision to seek shareholder approval of Musk's 2018 pay package was made by the board after it received a report from a special committee of one board member, Kathleen Wilson-Thompson.

The board wrote that if there is any significant vote against future executive pay packages, “we will consider our stockholders' concerns, and the compensation committee will evaluate whether any actions are necessary to address those concerns.”

Shares of Tesla Inc., which slid another 8% this week, fell about 1% Wednesday.

The electric car company's CEO said early Thursday that Tesla would get shareholders to vote on whether to switch its corporate registration to Texas, where its physical headquarters is located. Photo courtesy of Tesla

Tesla investors potentially to vote on switching the carmaker's corporate registration to Texas

to be or not to be

Elon Musk wants Tesla investors to decide on moving the company's corporate listing to Texas after a Delaware court decided he shouldn't get a multibillion-dollar pay package.

The electric car company's CEO said early Thursday that Tesla would get shareholders to vote on whether to switch its corporate registration to Texas, where its physical headquarters is located.

“Tesla will move immediately to hold a shareholder vote to transfer state of incorporation to Texas,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.

Musk had polled X users earlier on the same question, with 87.1% of 1.1 million respondents voting yes. “The public vote is unequivocally in favor of Texas!” he wrote.

Musk, who has previously polled people on X before making decisions, moved Tesla's headquarters to Austin, Texas, from California in 2021.

His announcement comes after a judge in Delaware, where the company is currently registered, ruled last Tuesday that Musk is not entitled to a landmark compensation package potentially worth more than $55 billion that was awarded by Tesla’s board of directors.

After the ruling, Musk took to social media to to express his displeasure.

“Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware,” he wrote in one post. He later added, “I recommend incorporating in Nevada or Texas if you prefer shareholders to decide matters.”

The ruling came five years after shareholders filed a lawsuit accusing Musk and Tesla directors of breaching their duties and arguing that the pay package was a product of sham negotiations with directors who were not independent of him.

The defense countered that the pay plan was fairly negotiated by a compensation committee whose members were independent and had lofty performance milestones.

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European cleantech company breaks ground on Houston manufacturing site

coming soon

Spanish renewable energy company Power Electronics broke ground on its new 53-acre Houston campus on Sept.24.

The new site is expected to create over 400 local jobs and deliver 40 gigawatts of production capacity per year. The company said in a news release that the campus is expected to be the largest manufacturing site for power conversion systems in the U.S. Power Electronics specializes in solar, energy storage, data centers and electrification technologies.

A completion date and operational start date have not yet been announced.

“For the first time in many years, the United States will be able to meet its growing need for sustainable power generation capacity and energy resilience through local manufacturing, supported by the most advanced technology in the world,” David Salvo, CEO of Power Electronics, said in the news release. “Our [40-gigawatt] Houston Campus will help shape the future of energy and AI growth globally."

Once operational, the manufacturing site will feature two buildings of approximately 150,000 square feet and 700,000 square feet. They will house production, logistics, R&D, corporate offices, training and electronic manufacturing departments.

The company says the Houston campus will be its most automated inverter production site by using advanced technologies in production to streamline day-to-day processes. Inverters convert direct current (DC) electricity that is generated by solar panels and batteries to alternating current (AC) electricity used by electrical grids.

Power Electronics' global headquarters is in Valencia, Spain, with U.S. operations in Houston, Tampa, and Gilbert, Arizona. Its North American headquarters is located at its existing North Houston office on East Airtex Drive. Community Impact News reports that the new manufacturing site is located in the Cy-Fair/Jersey Village area.

Power Electronics shared on LinkedIn that the new Houston campus represents its commitment to its American business and will allow it to serve the market with "greater scale, proximity and local expertise." It currently has more than 116 gigawatts installed in the U.S. and is working toward a global goal of 105 gigawatts of annual global production capacity.

Major oil exporters agree to keep production steady in November 2026

Oil News

Seven major oil-exporting countries agreed Sunday to keep production steady in November at a time when the Iran war has driven the price of benchmark Brent crude oil above $100 a barrel.

The so-called OPEC+ subgroup — Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman — will meet again on November 1 to review conditions in the oil market.

The fighting with Iran, which began with U.S. and Israeli attacks on Feb. 28, has disrupted global oil supplies and driven prices higher.

The group of seven wealthy democracies said Friday that they plan to release 100 million barrels of oil and fuel products in the coming weeks, starting with “substantial” amounts of diesel.

Diesel prices recently hit record highs in the United States, squeezing farmers, truckers and consumers who depend on the fuel.

The G7 promised a “frontloaded substantial release” of diesel within the next 20 days and the rest over four months.

Hertha Metals raises $133M Series A round, plans high-purity iron plant

cleaner steel

Conroe-based Hertha Metals has closed a $133.65 million Series A round that includes a $65 million equity investment from the Pentagon. The startup uses a one-step process to convert iron into molten steel or high-purity iron.

Khosla Ventures and Doerr Capital co-led the round, with participation from CEV, Pear Ventures, Gates Frontier, Niterra SUISO no MORI Fund, Toyota Ventures, and Siemens Financial Services.

The federal investment came from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment program. The program aims to strengthen and modernize the U.S. Defense Industrial Base, a network that researches, designs, builds, and maintains military weapons, equipment, technology, and services.

The Series A funding will finance construction of Hertha Chalyx, a plant that will be capable of producing 10,000 metric tons of steel-grade and magnet-grade high-purity iron.

Hertha says Chalyx will provide U.S.-made material for manufacturers of rare-earth magnets. Today, China controls more than 90 percent of the global manufacturing of rare-earth magnets.

Rare-earth magnets can be found in fighter jets, smart bombs, submarines, satellites, drones and other military hardware. These magnets are also key components in electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, computer hard drives, smartphones, headphones, cordless tools and an array of other products.

“Every electric vehicle, aerospace platform, radar system, and data center depends on domestic iron and magnet feedstock suppliers,” Laureen Meroueh, founder and CEO of Hertha, said in a press release.

“Hertha Chalyx closes that gap,” she added. “We are building the supply chain this country needs, and we are doing it by providing a domestic cost-competitive option for manufacturers while unlocking safer and cleaner production.”

Hertha says Chalyx, alongside its Pi100 pilot project, will be the first modern-day “iron and steel innovation complex.” The startup expects to break ground on Chalyx this year.

Since its founding in 2022, Hertha has raised more than $150 million from investors.

This spring, Hertha led the manufacturing category on Fast Company’s list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2026.