In an aerial view, the Tesla corporate headquarters is seen in Travis County, Texas on January 03, 2023.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
Tesla Tuesday at its Austin, Texas factory kicked off its 2023 annual shareholders meeting, with shareholders voting to add former Tesla CTO JB Straubel, now CEO of Redwood Materials, to the automaker’s board of directors.
Redwood Materials recycles electronic waste and batteries, and last year a multi billion dollar deal With Tesla supplier Panasonic.
Following the shareholder vote, CEO Elon Musk closed his portion of the meeting with a commitment to conduct a third-party audit of Tesla’s cobalt supply chain, namely to ensure that there is no contamination within any of Tesla’s cobalt suppliers. There is no child labour.
Cobalt is a key component for the production of batteries that are used in Tesla’s electric cars and backup battery packs used in homes and for utility-scale energy projects. Musk said in person in the presence of investors, “Even for the small amounts of cobalt that we do, we will have six weeks by Sunday to make sure that no child labor is being exploited. “
Leo Koguan, Tesla’s biggest retail shareholder since the electric vehicle maker’s last annual meeting in August 2022, criticized Musk for selling billions of dollars of his Tesla holdings to buy social media company Twitter for $44 billion Is.
Koguan, who is a billionaire and the founder of IT services firm SHI International, summoned the board of the company “Perform shock therapy to revive share price” through share buyback late last year.
Musk is now serving as the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter, but recently announced that he has appointed a new CEO for Twitter. Linda Yacarino, former head of advertising at NBC Universal. Musk plans to remain at Twitter in the role of CTO.
Some Institutional Tesla Investors Have Advised Musk be extremely distracted With his new role as CEO of Twitter to do better at the helm of Tesla. He has also criticized the Tesla board, led by Chairman Robin Denholm, for failing to rein in and protect the interests of shareholders.
Tesla shares closed at $228.52 on October 28, 2022, when Musk officially took over Twitter. They closed at $166.52 at the start of the session on May 16, 2023.
At the 2022 annual shareholders meeting for Tesla, Musk predicted an 18-month recession, teased the possibility of share buybacks, and told investors that the electric vehicle business aimed to produce 20 million vehicles annually by 2030, with About a dozen factories he thought would be needed. Total with each producing 1.5 million to 2 million units per year.
At the time, Musk also told investors that the long-delayed Cybertruck would not have the same specifications and pricing that were originally promised when the company unveiled the angular pickup in 2019.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
