Tesla‘s board chair Robyn Denholm said on Friday Elon Musk has returned to being “front and center at the company,” after winding down his role as a US government adviser earlier this year.
“Having him front and center at the company and delivering against really ambitious goals, to me, is great for him, it’s great for the company, it’s also great for shareholders,” she stated in a new interview with Bloomberg.
Denholm rejected suggestions that the CEO’s political activity has affected demand for Tesla vehicles, insisting that Musk remains the right leader to guide the company.
“What he does from a personal perspective in terms of his political motivations is up to him,” Tesla‘s board chair stated.
“From a politics perspective, obviously we’re in a democracy, so everyone gets to voice their points of view,” she added before saying Tesla’s long-term success rests on products rather than politics.
“My view is over the long term people buy things that they really love. Tesla vehicles are things people really love. You know the minute you get into a Tesla and you drive that car what that experience is like,” she said.
The comments come as Tesla seeks shareholder approval for a new pay package for Musk, tied to what Denholm called “pretty ambitious goals.”
The plan links 12 tranches of compensation to operational and market-cap milestones, with the top target at $8.5 trillion, nearly eight times Tesla’s current valuation.
“It is a zero compensation package unless he delivers,” Denholm said. “Ambitious goals that include 20 million vehicles, that include 10 million FSD paid subscription areas, that think about a million robots and robotaxis.”
She described the board’s decision to back Musk as CEO through the next decade as a deliberate one.
“Once you decide who the leader should be, you need to put in place a compensation package to incent and motivate him to actually deliver against the ambitious goals,” Denholm said.
“Elon is the right CEO for Tesla over this transformative period of time … there aren’t any other people out there like Elon who can actually lead the company over this next decade.”
Denholm also pointed to the central role of artificial intelligence and robotics in Tesla’s strategy.
“AI and autonomous and the application of AI are transformative technologies … Elon put out the master plan on the 1st of September, putting out the vision for the company for the next decade or more, and AI and autonomous is at the front and center of that — both in the vehicles but also in our Optimus lineup and what we’re doing from a robotics perspective as well,” she said.
Tesla shares were trading 6.2% higher at $391 as of press time, extending gains from Thursday’s session when they also rose more than 6% after the company secured official approval to begin testing its Robotaxi service on public roads in Nevada.
The stock has risen 17.18% in the past 30 days, contributing to a 68.2% gain over the last 12 months. Despite the strong performance, it is still down 4% year to date.
