The bank managing the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund has moved to block Elon Musk’s proposed $1 trillion Tesla pay package, dealing a major blow to the billionaire ahead of the company’s crucial shareholder meeting this Thursday.
Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, confirmed on Tuesday that it had voted against Musk’s compensation plan, citing “concerns about the size of the award, dilution, and the lack of sufficient safeguards around key person risk.”
The bank acknowledged the “significant value created under Mr. Musk’s leadership” but said the proposed plan raises governance concerns that outweigh its benefits. NBIM’s decision makes it the largest institutional investor to publicly oppose Musk’s unprecedented compensation deal.
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The Norwegian fund, which owns about 1.2% of Tesla, is the company’s sixth-largest institutional investor. Its vote could sway others in the high-stakes shareholder decision that will determine whether Musk secures what would be the largest executive pay package in corporate history.
This is not the first time NBIM has opposed Musk’s compensation. The fund voted against his 2018 package—which a Delaware court later struck down earlier this year—and again opposed a revised version in 2024. Relations between Musk and NBIM CEO Nicolai Tangen have reportedly been tense. In leaked text exchanges from January, Musk told Tangen, “friends are as friends do,” after the fund’s earlier opposition.
Musk’s new pay plan, worth roughly $1 trillion in Tesla stock options, would grant him massive equity rewards if he meets a string of long-term targets, including raising Tesla’s market capitalization to $8.5 trillion, selling one million Optimus humanoid robots, dramatically increasing earnings, and planning his eventual succession.
While Musk argues the package is essential to maintain his focus on Tesla amid his growing involvement in SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and xAI, critics say the scale of the compensation is excessive and exposes Tesla to governance risks.
Other major investors have taken sides. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the New York State Retirement Fund have already voted against the plan, joining NBIM in voicing concerns about shareholder dilution and governance standards. Proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) have also urged Tesla shareholders to reject the deal.
Musk, in response, lashed out at the firms, calling them “corporate terrorists” during Tesla’s recent earnings call.
Not all large investors are opposed, however. The Florida State Board of Administration and ARK Invest’s Cathie Wood have expressed support for the package, while Vanguard and BlackRock—Tesla’s two biggest institutional shareholders—have yet to reveal their positions.
If approved, the new plan would cement Musk’s fortune far beyond any other CEO in history, potentially making him the world’s first trillionaire. If rejected, it would mark a major governance setback for Tesla’s board and could test the billionaire’s commitment to the automaker at a time when the company faces slowing sales, growing EV competition from China, and investor doubts about Musk’s focus.
Tesla’s shareholders are set to cast their votes at the company’s annual general meeting on Thursday, in what analysts are describing as one of the most consequential corporate decisions of the decade.