Ruling on Musk's Tesla pay package was 'un-American': Cathie Wood

Tesla CEO Elon Musk wants to move Tesla's (TSLA) incorporation to Texas from Delaware, following a judge's ruling that invalidated his massive $56 billion pay package. Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood, who is also a Tesla shareholder, thinks he should do it.

Wood says the judge's ruling was "basically taking the vote away from us, the shareholder." Wood goes on to say the ruling was "un-American. It's anti-investor. And it's an insult to the board of directors of Tesla."

Watch the video above to head what Wood has to say about Musk's desire to gain 25% voting control of the EV maker.

Click here to watch the full interview or you can watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live here.

Editor's note: This article was written by Stephanie Mikulich.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: I guess we can have a conversation these days without talking about Tesla. It feels like. So I got to ask you about Tesla. Do you think that the company should be-- would you as the shareholder vote for Tesla switching its domicile from Delaware to Texas?

CATHIE WOOD: We're very supportive of that. What happened in Delaware, the judge ruling and basically taking the vote away from us the shareholder, we voted for that pay package, 73% of shareholders did. And to have the judge thinking that she is reading the minds of directors and independence, dependence, whatever, I just think-- as I said in a post on X, I think it's un-American, it's anti investor.

And it's an insult to the board of directors of Tesla. So totally supportive of that move.

JULIE HYMAN: Are you supportive of Elon Musk's requests or demands or whatever you want to call it to get more voting shares. Or as he says, he'll take some of his technology elsewhere. Or do you feel as though Tesla's being held hostage to that demand?

CATHIE WOOD: I do not feel that. Being involved in disruptive innovation and only disruptive innovation, we know that we need visionary leaders who will stand up to short-term oriented shareholders and be able to execute their vision with the right technologies at the right time. And Elon Musk is the inventor of our age. And he is also our Renaissance man.

So I'm always surprised at the pushback he receives. And I do think that that 25, he's not asking for any more economic interest. It's a voting interest. And for many of our companies, we are supportive of super voting rights because we know the visionary leaders. We go through periods of volatility and they just need to be able to execute upon their vision not be thrown off by boards of directors who are listening to short-term oriented shareholders and swayed by them.