Future of Musk, Tesla on line this week as shareholders vote on pay package

If Tesla shareholders vote against restoring Elon Musk's USD 44.9 billion pay package Thursday, the CEO could deliver on threats to take artificial intelligence research to one of this other companies. Or he could even could walk away.

If they approve the all-stock compensation package that was thrown out by a Delaware judge in January, it would almost guarantee he would remain at the company he grew to be the world leader in electric vehicles, shifting to AI and robotics including autonomous vehicles, which Musk says is Tesla's future.

But even with reapproval at Thursday's annual shareholders' meeting, which many analysts say is likely, there would be uncertainty. Musk has threatened on X, his social medial platform, to develop AI elsewhere if he doesn't get a 25% stake in Tesla (He owns about 13% now). Musk's xAI recently received $6 billion in funding to develop artificial intelligence.

Wedbush Analyst Dan Ives said he expects the package to be overwhelmingly reapproved, ending