Tesla Shareholders Approve Big Stock Package for Musk

Tesla shareholders have reaffirmed a pay award of more than $45 billion for Elon Musk, the chief executive, after it was thrown out in a legal challenge.

The vote result, announced at Tesla’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, is a strong sign that shareholders still believe in Mr. Musk and it could persuade the judge who voided the award to reinstate it.

Support for the pay plan will come as a relief to Mr. Musk’s admirers, who feared that rejection would prompt him to spend less time managing Tesla or even quit. The vote was a setback for investors who had hoped it would send a message about the accountability of chief executives and the limits of executive pay.

The outcome may also help Mr. Musk qualify as the world’s richest person, worth well over $200 billion.

Tesla shares rose on Thursday ahead of the official announcement of the results after Mr. Musk said on X that the pay plan was passing by a wide margin.

Tesla’s board had called for the vote in response to a ruling by Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick of the Court of Chancery in Delaware, where Tesla is registered as a corporation. In January, Chancellor McCormick agreed with a group of disenchanted Tesla shareholders who contended in a lawsuit that the 2018 pay package was wildly excessive.