CalPERS, Glass Lewis, and Now Norway: Opposition Mounts to $1T Musk Deal

The coalition of opponents to Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay package has grown significantly, with Norway’s sovereign wealth fund being the latest major investor to declare it will vote “no.”
The fund, Tesla’s seventh-largest shareholder, joins an influential list of dissenters. This includes the two primary shareholder advisory firms, Glass Lewis and ISS, and the largest public pension scheme in the US, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS).
The Norwegian fund’s reasoning aligns with the others: the package is just too big. The fund expressed concerns over the “total size,” the “dilution” of shares, and the “key person risk” tied to Musk.
This opposition creates a significant hurdle for Tesla’s board. Chair Robyn Denholm has argued the vote is critical to retain Musk, whose leadership she claims is essential to the company’s value.
The vote on Thursday will be a major test of shareholder sentiment, especially as Tesla navigates a difficult period of falling sales in China and Europe, and a 13% dip in first-half global deliveries.