Tesla gives Delaware the cold shoulder and pitches a move to Texas

Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Antonio Masiello/Getty Images

• Tesla is done with Delaware.
• Elon Musk has disapproved of Delaware ever since a judge there ruled against his massive pay package.
• Now the company wants shareholders to move the company to Texas officially.

Tesla wants to abandon Delaware and make Texas its official home.

In a proxy statement filed with the SEC on Wednesday, Tesla asked shareholders to approve moving the electric car company’s incorporation from its current location in Delaware to Texas, where its headquarters are.

“Texas Is Tesla’s Home. 2024 is the year that Tesla should move home to Texas,” the proxy statement reads. “We have received letters from thousands of Tesla stockholders — large and small — supporting a move home to Texas. We have heard you, and now we formally ask that you speak in a meaningful way: and vote in favor of taking Tesla to our business home of Texas.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been feuding with Delaware since a judge there ruled in January against approving Musk’s $55 billion pay package, which a shareholder had argued in a 2018 lawsuit was too excessive.

“Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware,” Musk wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on January 30 following the judge’s decision.

Now, shareholders will have a chance to make good on Musk’s threats to bail.

The proxy statement also asks shareholders to re-approve Musk’s pay package, which is now valued at $47 billion. Shareholders are scheduled to vote on both proposals — the move and the pay package — in June.

Before then, Tesla will announce its quarterly earnings next Tuesday, on the heels of sweeping layoffs this week to more than 10% of the company’s workforce.

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