Tesla shareholders approve Elon Musk's $56B pay package

June 13 (UPI) -- Tesla shareholders on Thursday afternoon voted to reinstate CEO Elon Musk 's $56 billion compensation package.

The final vote was announced during Tesla's annual meeting in Austin, Texas, and was met with a standing ovation from shareholders.

"Hot, damn, I love you guys," Musk said at the meeting.

Shareholders also voted in favor of a Musk-backed plan to move Tesla's headquarters out of Delaware and into Texas

Musk's massive pay package appeared to have a guaranteed "yes" vote early on.

Musk Wednesday evening wrote on X , which he owns, that the resolution to reinstate the pay package and a second to move Tesla's incorporation from Delaware to Texas were passing by "wide margins."

That news sent Tesla stocks jumping nearly 7% in premarket trading going into Thursday morning.

Stocks rose another 2.9% to close at $182.47 Thursday afternoon. The stock is still down 27% for the year as the automaker grapples with declining sales and increased competition from the Chinese electric vehicle market.

Musk declared success despite several prominent investors -- including the California State Teachers' Retirement System and Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund -- saying they would reject the call to reinstate the pay package and proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services also urging shareholders to vote against the resolution.

The vote is also not legally binding, opening up the possibility of legal hurdles including from the Delaware court that initially struck it down.

Tesla announced the plans to bring the vote to shareholders in an April proxy filing which said the court's decision to strike down the pay package caused a "fundamental problem for the company" and circumvented the will of an "overwhelming majority of shareholders" who voted to approve it.

Delaware Chancery Court Chancellor Kathleen McCormick called Musk's compensation package "unfair" adding that he held too much control to set the rules and the price, in her January ruling that agreed with complaints by shareholder Richard Tornetta.

While Thursday's vote doesn't override the court's ruling, it could boost Musk's effort to sway the court to give him his performance options in the future.

At the time of the ruling Musk had also sought to increase his ownership of Tesla stock from 13% to 25% to facilitate his work on artificial intelligence.

He lashed out after the ruling, writhing "Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware," on X and posting a poll asking users whether the company should move its incorporation to Texas.

The vote comes as Tesla decreases its workforce via layoffs when facing stiff competition in the electric vehicle market. While Musk supporters say he is the key to the company's future, foes charge he has become distracted after buying X and starting his own artificial intelligence company xAI.