Major pension fund will vote against Elon Musk pay package

The chief of a major pension fund said Monday he will vote against Elon Musk’s pay package later this week.

California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) Chief Investment Officer Christopher Ailman said in a CNBC interview that the fund will oppose Musk’s pay package, describing it as “ridiculous.”

CalSTRS holds nearly 4.7 million shares of Tesla Inc. as of June 2023, according to its website.

“We’ll pay him 140 times the average worker pay. How about that deal? I think that’s more than fair,” Ailman said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”

He also noted that CalSTRS voted against a previous pay package for Musk that a judge ruled the tech billionaire was not entitled to earlier this year. The vote, slated to be held this week, would reinstate the 2018 pay package struck down by the judge.

At least two shareholder advisory firms have recommended voting against the package, according to The Associated Press.

The AP noted that the package was recently valued by the company at about $44.9 billion.

In his interview Monday, Ailman urged Musk to focus on just one of his numerous endeavors. Musk owns the social platform X and aerospace company SpaceX in addition to Tesla.  

“This is a company that has not grown in the last two years, is barely making money per car itself,” Ailman said. “He needs to focus in either on cars either on X or on going to Mars. And I think his heart really is in going to Mars and getting off the planet.”

He added that he would “hate” to see Musk walk away from Tesla.

“He’s brilliant. I admire him. I’ve listened to him recently at the Milken conference. Amazing speaker,” he said. “But let’s run this company. It’s an auto manufacturer; let’s go back to making cars and doing it well. He can run SpaceX and run his other efforts and see how they do. He’s focused on Starlink.”

“He’s got a million balls in the air. Focus on a few,” he added.

The Hill has reached out to Tesla for comment.

The Associated Press contributed.