Elon Musk's $1 Trillion Gambit: Control Over Tesla's 'Robot Army' and AI Future

Elon Musk frets over controlling Tesla's 'robot army' as car biz rebounds slightly

Tesla's record sales quarter has offered the company a reprieve after a terrible start to 2025. But CEO Elon Musk is focused on building a "robot army" and making good on his years-long, unfulfilled promise of self-driving cars -- tasks he needs to accomplish if he is to unlock the full value of the $1 trillion compensation package that Tesla wants to award him. The tension between Tesla's current automotive-driven business and the AI-centric one that Musk is aiming for has never been more clear. Tesla delivered a record number of vehicles in the third quarter of 2025, thanks in large part to a rush of customers in the United States who took advantage of the expiring federal EV tax credit. But that record quarter did not lead to greater earnings. In fact, Tesla's third-quarter profit was still 37% lower than it was in the same quarter last year. Tesla shipped 497,099 cars in the third quarter, which generated $21.2 billion in automotive revenue -- the company's best revenue figure in more than a year. But Tesla only pulled in a profit of $1.4 billion, up just $200 million from the second quarter of this year, according to a shareholder letter released Wednesday. The record quarter came after an abysmal start to the year for Tesla, which saw sales drop mightily in part because of Musk's involvement with the Trump administration. The company explained in the letter that a big increase in operating expenses -- 50% higher compared to the third quarter last year -- was one of the culprits. That operating expense bump was thanks to spending on AI and other R&D projects, as well as "restructuring" charges of nearly $240 million. Tesla didn't explain what those restructuring charges were for, but it's possibly related to the recent decision to shut down the company's six-year Dojo supercomputer project. Tesla cited tariffs as another drag on profits this past quarter, meaning Musk spent around $300 million to help elect a president who has hurt the company's business. Tesla's chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja said on a conference call Wednesday the tariff hit was about $400 million. "We're at a critical inflection point for Tesla and our strategy going forward as we bring AI into the real world," Musk said on the call. Tesla is at the "beginning of scaling, quite massively, Full Self-Driving and Robotaxi, and fundamentally changing the nature of transport," he said. All of this will put even more pressure on the company's final quarter of the year. Tesla already needs another record quarter (and then some) if it wants to simply match the number of cars it shipped in 2024 or 2023. The company could get some help from the new slightly-cheaper stripped-down versions of the Model 3 and Model Y EVs. But even in that best-case scenario, Tesla is way off the path of 50% year-over-year growth that it once promised to investors and shareholders. But Musk has spent the last few years trying to get shareholders, investors, employees, and everyone else to look beyond the company's core business of making and selling cars. He's bet the future of Tesla on being able to create a vast network of self-driving vehicles that he thinks can challenge Uber. And he thinks the humanoid robot, Optimus, will become the best-selling product ever. Tesla offered little new info on those programs in Wednesday's letter. Musk said on the conference call that Tesla may start building the third version of Optimus in the first quarter of 2026. He had once promised to build thousands of the robots by the end of this year, but as The Information has reported, Tesla has run into problems in early production with Optimus. "Bringing Optimus to market is an incredibly difficult task, to be clear. It's not like some walk in the park," Musk said. But Musk continued Tesla's gauzy, unspecific claims about how much Optimus will change the world. "You can actually create a world where there is no poverty, where everyone has access to the finest medical care," he said. "Optimus will be an incredible surgeon." The increased focus on AI, robotics, and self-driving cars (including starting production of the two-seater "Cybercab") will also cost Tesla more next year. Taneja said capital expenditures will increase "substantially" in 2026 thanks to those projects. He also said Tesla has had to increase employee-related spending to stay competitive in the ongoing AI talent war. Tesla's third-quarter results come amid the backdrop of the company's proposal to hand $1 trillion worth of shares to Musk. That plan is up for a vote at the Tesla's annual shareholder meeting in a few weeks. The company -- and Musk -- are campaigning hard. While advisor groups like ISS and Glass Lewis are recommending against the pay package, it's most likely going to pass given the overwhelming support from shareholders on previous efforts. That hasn't stopped Musk from threatening to walk away from Tesla if the package isn't approved. On Wednesday's call, he reiterated his claim that he cares more about the voting control the compensation package would afford him than the money. "I just don't feel comfortable building robot army here and then being ousted because of some asinine recommendations from ISS and Glass Lewis, who have no friggin' clue. I mean, those guys are corporate terrorists," Musk said. This story has been updated with new information from Tesla's third-quarter conference call.

Elon Musk Wants 'Strong Influence' Over the 'Robot Army' He's Building

Tesla might be an electric automaker, but CEO Elon Musk has made clear that he thinks of it as much more: an innovator in artificial intelligence and software, a builder of world-shaking robots. He's also argued that Tesla should be worth a lot more than it is today: up to $20 trillion, he posted in July, more than five times the current worth of Nvidia. Musk has also made it clear that he wants to get paid, a lot. In November, Tesla shareholders will vote on the board's proposal to pay the CEO a remarkable $1 trillion over the next decade. The deal would also increase Musk's stake in Tesla from 13 percent to a quarter. But Musk would only get that big figure -- and the extra control -- if he hit a series of ambitious metrics, including 20 million vehicles delivered, one million robotaxis in commercial operation, and an $8.5 trillion valuation. And also, one million Optimus humanoid robots delivered. On a call with investors Wednesday, Musk locked onto that last point to make his most threatening argument for a gigantic payday yet. "My fundamental concern with regard to how much voting control I have at Tesla is, if I go ahead and build this enormous robot army, can I just be ousted at some point in the future?" he said. "If we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over this robot army? Not control, but a strong influence ... I don't feel comfortable building that robot army unless I have a strong influence." Generally, Musk talks about Tesla's Optimus project as more of a force for peace than war. He's said that Optimus will upend the job market and free humanity from the drudgery of work. ("Working will be optional, like growing your own vegetables, instead of buying them from the store," he posted this week.) Elsewhere on the investor call Wednesday, he said that Tesla's robots would "actually create a world where there is no poverty, where everyone has access to the finest medical care." Optimus, he added, "will be an incredible surgeon, and imagine if everyone had access to an incredible surgeon." For Tesla, Optimus will be "an infinite money glitch," Musk said, arguing that everyone will want a humanoid robot who can do their work for them. At Tesla events -- and at the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles -- Optimus robots are usually seen doing service work: serving drinks and popcorn, or entertaining visitors by dancing or playing rock, paper, scissors. (Optimus participants in a 2024 Tesla event were later acknowledged to be not fully autonomous, but remotely operated by humans.)

Elon Musk says he needs $1 trillion to control Tesla's 'robot army'

Well, that's not very subtle. In an earnings call last night, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he needs more control over Tesla, as well as a pay package that could be worth nearly $1 trillion, in exchange for building a "robot army." Otherwise, he could get ousted as CEO, and then, well, who would control the army? In a sense, Musk is asking Tesla's shareholders to vote to approve an enormous payday to insure that he -- and he alone -- remains in control of the company's legions of humanoid robots (that do not exist). It was a very strange way to persuade investors to vote in favor of the proposal that's been put forward by the company's board. And it amounted to an unsubtle threat that Musk could simply pick up his ball and go play somewhere else. "My fundamental concern with regard to how much voting control I have in Tesla is, if I go ahead and build this enormous robot army, can I just be ousted at some point in the future?" Musk said. "That's my biggest concern." Under the proposed pay package, Musk would need to meet certain milestones in order to receive that eye-popping compensation, such as producing 1 million robotaxis and 1 million humanoid robots, as well as increase Tesla's valuation by trillions of dollars. Musk, already the world's richest man, would ascend to new heights of financial untouchability if he is able to achieve these goals. Shareholders are expected to approve the package during the company's annual shareholder meeting on November 7th. Musk's fears of being kicked out of Tesla conflict with his previous threats to simply leave the company if the pay package is not approved. It seems outlandish that Tesla's board would ever consider ousting Musk, especially after they sat on their hands throughout the year as Musk's hard-charging efforts for the Trump administration as head of DOGE led to a nationwide protest movement against Tesla and a dramatic drop in the company's sales. If moonlighting as Trump's hatchet man couldn't get Musk fired, it's hard to imagine what would. Musk also tried a different tactic during the earnings call: questioning whether the money was even that important to him. "It's called compensation. But it's not like I'm going to go spend the money," Musk said. "It's just, if we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over that robot army? Not control, but a strong influence." It wasn't so long ago that Musk was sounding the warning about AI's "threat to humanity." He famously compared work on AI to "summoning the demon," and warned time and time again that the technology poses an existential risk to humanity. And he urged governments to start regulating AI before it was too late. Now he is posing a challenge to Tesla shareholders: Give me the power, or else. This coming from a guy who threw not one but two Nazi salutes at Donald Trump's inauguration. Whose push to eliminate funding for humanitarian programs through USAID could lead to the deaths of millions of people by 2030, according to a recent study. Who claims to be a free speech absolutist while welcoming back white supremacists and election deniers to his social media platform. And who built a chatbot that declared itself to be "MechaHitler." Of course, Tesla's Optimus robots are a long way from posing any sort of threat to society. They struggled to hand out popcorn at the company's diner in Los Angeles. And they were revealed to be under remote control at Tesla's Cybercab event last year. In the call, Musk acknowledged that it was difficult to build a robot hand that was as dexterous as a human one. The rest was the normal Musk histrionics: Optimus will be Tesla's "biggest product of all time"; robot surgeons are a possibility; and the robot is like "an infinite money glitch" for Tesla, insofar as how much revenue it will generate. Musk said that Tesla will unveil "Optimus V3" during the first quarter of next year. The fourth version will be the one that scales into the tens of thousands of units, he added. "It'll seem like a person in a robot suit, which is how we started off with Optimus," he quipped. "It'll seem so real that you'll need to poke it, I think, to believe that it's actually a robot." Proxy-advisory firms ISS and Glass Lewis are advising Tesla shareholders to oppose Musk's pay package, prompting the petulant CEO to call the firms "corporate terrorists." If past is prologue, shareholders are likely to approve the board's proposal to gift Musk more control over the company by a wide margin. And if his predictions about Optimus come to pass, we'll see what the world's first trillionaire does with his new army.

'Corporate Terrorists' May Stand in the Way of Elon Musk's Trillionaire Status, He Claims

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is facing the possibility of becoming the world's first trillionaire if investors vote in favor of an unprecedented $1 trillion pay package on November 6. In the company's third quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Musk made the case that he wasn't actually in it for the money but that he needed the voting power that comes along with it. "I don't feel comfortable building that robot army if I don't have at least a strong influence," Musk said, adding that he is looking for voting power in the "mid-20s approximately." Musk currently has around 13.5% voting power, and the proposed plan would see him add 12% to that stake over the next decade. Proxy advisors Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis have urged Tesla investors to reject the plan due to potential decrease in company value and concerns over the details of the proposal. In the earnings call on Wednesday, Musk called both "corporate terrorists." The "robot army" in question that Musk is fighting for is the company's Optimus robot project. In the earnings call, Musk said that Tesla would be unveiling Optimus V3s early next year, and called the robots "an infinite money glitch," while making bold claims about their potential. The Tesla chief said that the robots can achieve "probably 5x the productivity of a person per year," and that one would make for an "incredible surgeon." "It won't even seem like a robot. It'll seem like a person in a robot suit," Musk said. "It'll seem so real that you'll need to, like, poke it, I think, to believe that it's actually a robot." The billionaire is known for his optimistic claims and timelines that don't always play out as he expects. The company delivered a record number of vehicles this past quarter, but that was not enough to save profits, which Tesla executives claim were dented in part by tariffs set by President Trump (whom Musk campaigned hard to get elected). With the EV tax credit now also gone, Tesla is looking down a path were there won't be as many record vehicle deliveries. Possibly prompted by this, the company has increasingly shifted its focus to AI and robotics to drive value for the company, and Wednesday's earnings call was yet another example of that. Tesla is expecting to get rid of safety drivers in its robotaxis, "at least in large parts of Austin by the end of this year," Musk said in the earnings call. Tesla currently operates its self-driving robotaxi service in two cities: Austin and San Francisco. In both cities, robotaxis include human safety monitors in case things go awry. Tesla's robotaxi adventure so far has been riddled with regulatory scrutiny and legal headaches. The service will also reportedly expand its operations to new locations. Tesla now expects robotaxis to be operational in eight to ten metro areas, including in Nevada, Florida and Arizona, by the end of the year. Those new markets will start off with a safety monitor for at least the first three months or so, Musk said. Tesla's biggest competitor in the robotaxi space, Waymo, is operational in five metro areas, and has plans to launch in five more. Across the automotive world, autonomous vehicles were the hot topic of the day on Wednesday. The company's third quarter earnings call took place just hours after competitor GM unveiled plans to debut not just hands-free but also "eyes-off" electric vehicles by 2028, to much fanfare and investor applause. Musk spent most of the call assuring investors that the company's artificial intelligence and autonomous driving initiatives were scaling "quite massively." Musk said that Tesla had achieved "clarity" on unsupervised full self-driving, and now feels confident in expanding Tesla's production as fast as possible. "At this point I feel 100% confident that we can solve unsupervised full self-driving at a safety level much greater than any human," Musk said. Musk also claimed that the autonomous Teslas will be better than humans at spotting empty parking spots, thanks to 360 degree vision and advanced intelligence. "I'm confident in saying that Tesla has the highest intelligence density. When you look at the intelligence per gigabyte, I think Tesla AI is probably an order of magnitude better than anyone else," Musk said. During his ramblings, the billionaire also claimed that Tesla's self-driving cars will, in fact, become too intelligent for their own good.

Elon says quiet part out loud: he needs $1 trillion so he can control a robot army

Elon Musk needs Tesla investors to vote for his $1 trillion payday so that he can control a robot army. Yes, really, that's what he said. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is no stranger to unrealistic proclamations, but today's is a doozie. In the midst of an upcoming shareholder vote to give Musk a $1 trillion payday despite his recent poor performance as a CEO (with earnings down 40% during what should have been a record quarter), Tesla has been undergoing a media blitz trying to get shareholders to vote in favor of a plan to dilute their value and voting rights and saddle the company with the same CEO for the next decade. For his part, Musk has stated repeatedly that he wants this award not for money, but for more control over the company, because he "doesn't feel comfortable" building AI unless he has more control over it (in keeping with this mentality, Musk started his own private AI company, xAI, to compete with Tesla, which is likely illegal). Nevermind that there are better options available which would increase his voting control without diluting all other shareholders, and nevermind that the reason he has less control of Tesla than he used to is because he sold TSLA shares to overpay billions of dollars for a social media platform he's hopelessly addicted to, and then turned into a white supremacist haven. But this has at least been Musk's story: he wants more control over AI development, and he needs more shares to do that. He hasn't, however, mentioned the reason he wants that control. Today he did, and it's because he wants to control a "robot army." On Tesla's Q3 conference call, Musk went on a tangent with his real thoughts on Optimus, Tesla's (oft-remote-controlled) humanoid robot, in response to a shareholder question about the challenges of bringing Optimus to market. Here's the way he ended that answer: My fundamental concern with regard to how much money and control I have at Tesla is if I go ahead and build this enormous robot army, can I just be ousted at some point in the future? Um, that's my biggest concern, that is really the only thing Im trying to address with this... what's called compensation but it's not like I'm gonna go spend the money, it's just if we build this robot army do I have at least a strong influence over that robot army? Not control but a strong influence. -Elon Musk, Tesla Q3 shareholder conference call, October 22, 2025 It's apparent that he was trying to step back his comments mid-thought there, changing out the word "control" for "strong influence," and the phrase "I go ahead and build" to "we build." (I would suggest that perhaps the initial wordings used are more indicative of his true feelings on the matter than the ones he later changed to as his PR brain kicked in through the ketamine fog.) This is significantly different than past statements on this issue. Musk has often publicly stated his concern with AI, calling it a "risk" and "threat" to humanity, and said that he wants to be involved in its development to ensure safety. However, this statement had no mention of that. The discussion wasn't about the safety of AI, but rather about wanting to control a robot army. And much of the statement was in the first person: he, alone, wants to "control" that robot army that he "builds." Notably, also, it is very important that any controller of any army be able to be ousted. This is fundamental to the entire concept of modern governance and democracy, and when it doesn't happen like that, countries tend to have problems. And, generally, the threshold for whether to remove someone from control of an army is not that you allow them to have 25% of the vote - usually, they get the same vote as everyone else (about 0.0000006%, in an American election these days). Let us put aside for the moment that, so far, Tesla's Optimus robots have not yet shown the capabilities that would strike fear in the hearts of a fighting force. At one of Tesla's big unveil events, it's clear that the robots were teleoperated. Since then, we've seen robots fail to deliver popcorn. However, a recent video did show Optimus doing some pretty impressive kung-fu moves... but a later video of the robot doing the same routine at the opening of the new Tron movie suggests that much of the choreography was scripted. Regardless of that, and assuming the robots do improve rapidly enough to be a real threat to humanity, it is questionable that Musk's fantasy involves him controlling a robot army that he in the past has said would number in the billions. The prospect of Elon Musk controlling a robot army might be of some concern considering Musk's recent political advocacy, which has centered largely on advocating for racists wherever possible. This has included performing back-to-back unambiguous Nazi salutes in front of a large crowd, agreeing with a defense of Hitler's actions in the Holocaust, and many other white supremacist statements. His advocacy hasn't been limited just to the United States, he's also meddled in other countries' politics, including support for German neo-Nazis and rhetorical and monetary support in the UK for a violent racist fraudster who has been imprisoned multiple times. All of this has driven protests against the company, embarrassed owners and destroyed Tesla's brand reputation, leading to falling sales in most territories. The behavior has also limited Tesla's business opportunities overseas, in the UK, Australia, Germany, Denmark, and so on. Musk also stated that he wants "more voting control, but not so much that I can't be fired if I go insane" (but as the situation around this trillion-dollar award indicates, and the rest of Musk's public behavior as listed above, that time has already passed). By the end of the call, Musk doubled-down on his "robot army", stating further: I just don't feel comfortable building a robot army here, and then being ousted because of some asinine recommendations from ISS and Glass Lewis, who have no f**king clue. I mean those guys are corporate terrorists. Lemme explain the core problem here, so many of the passive funds vote along the lines of what ISS and Glass Lewis recommend. Now, they have made many terrible recommendations in the past that if those recommendations had been followed would have been extremely destructive to the future of the company. Now, If you've got passive funds that essentially defer responsibility for the vote to Glass Lewis and ISS, then you can have extremely disastrous consequences for a publicly traded company if too much of the publicly traded company is controlled by index funds. It's de facto controlled by Glass Lewis and ISS. This is a fundamental problem for corporate governance, because they're not voting along the lines that are actually good for shareholders. That's the big issue, I mean, that's what it comes down to. ISS Glass Lewis corporate terrorism. -Elon Musk, Tesla Q3 shareholder conference call, October 22, 2025 While Musk does not specify any of these supposed "terrible recommendations," likely one of the ones he's referring to was when ISS/Glass Lewis recommended a "no" vote on Musk's illegal $55 billion pay package, which would pay a CEO who has overseen a significant drop in Tesla earnings more than double the total amount of money that Tesla has made in profits over its entire lifetime. And while Musk claims that having a disinterested entity interested in shareholder value is bad for shareholders, Musk apparently does not mind if he is that entity, and if his interests are opposed to shareholder interests, as in the case of the situation surrounding the current shareholder vote. In contrast to Musk's statement, the actual analyses of ISS and Glass Lewis are highly analytical, lay out their case dispassionately, argue in favor of maintaining shareholder rights, and even take some positions in agreement with Tesla's board where they think those would be beneficial for shareholders, showing their lack of "partisanship," so to speak, on the matter. ISS and Glass Lewis' arguments are certainly more detailed, more accurate to reality, less reeking of political language, and delivered with more lucidity than whatever the heck that robot army rant from Musk was all about. We've stated before that Elon Musk's $1 trillion stock award gets more ridiculous the more you look into it, but we didn't quite expect something as ridiculous as today's proclamation. But hey, if this dude from that weird rant above seems like the kind of "leader" you want to control a robot army, by all means, give up your voting rights for him. 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Elon Musk's Robot Army Is Coming -- If He Gets Total Control First - Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Elon Musk's third-quarter earnings call wasn't just about revenue growth -- it was a declaration of intent. While Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) reported $28.1 billion in quarterly sales, up from $25.2 billion a year ago, the real story was Musk's blueprint for the future: AI, autonomous robots, and total control over the company's destiny. The Voting Battle Behind The Robot Army Musk also took to X, sounding the alarm on governance. About half of all publicly-traded Tesla shares are controlled by passive index funds that outsource their voting to ISS and Glass Lewis, he notes. Musk criticized the advisory firms for often voting "along random political lines" rather than shareholder interests. In one telling example, ISS recommended voting against two longstanding Tesla directors at once -- citing "insufficient gender diversity" for one and, ironically, rejecting the other for the same reason. The subtext is clear: Musk wants control locked in before unleashing what he calls his "robot army." The November 6th vote isn't corporate housekeeping -- it's a prerequisite to scale Tesla's AI ambitions without interference. Read Also: Tesla's New Master Plan Is Either Genius - Or Just Elon Being Elon AI Infrastructure, Chips, And Humanoids On the tech side, Tesla is positioning itself as both an AI compute company and a manufacturing powerhouse. The A5 chip, built with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (NYSE:TSM) and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (OTCPK:SSNLF), promises to be 2x more efficient and up to 10x cheaper than competitors, giving Tesla complete control of its inference and training stack. Optimus humanoids, dubbed the "infinite money glitch," over the earnings call, are the centerpiece. Musk stressed that the challenge isn't intelligence -- it's scale. Vertical integration and control over supply chains are Tesla's moat, making humanoids a true differentiator. Robotaxis And Real-World Advantage Tesla is flexing its data edge: robotaxis are set to launch in multiple states by year-end, supported by six billion supervised miles already logged. Musk made it clear that Tesla is building a full-stack AI infrastructure -- from chips to robots to the autonomy network -- and he wants to ensure no one else dictates how it operates. Musk's Next Frontier Investors often focus on EVs, but Tesla's real bet is AI-powered robotics and autonomy. Before that vision can scale, Musk needs the keys to the kingdom. November 6th could decide whether Tesla remains a carmaker -- or becomes a full-blown AI empire. Read Next: Tesla's Secret Weapon: 44% Energy-Storage Growth Reshapes EV Giant Photo: Shutterstock TSLATesla Inc$435.13-0.87%OverviewSSNLFSamsung Electronics Co Ltd$42.480.34%TSMTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd$293.691.67%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

Elon Musk Says His Biggest Concern With Tesla's Optimus Robot Army Is Losing Influence Over It: 'Not Like Some Walk In The Park' - Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)

On Wednesday, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk spoke about his primary concern with the company's ambitious Optimus humanoid robot program is ensuring he retains strong influence over the future "robot army," not just the technical challenges of building it. Tesla's Humanoid Robot Faces 'Incredibly Difficult' Challenges During Tesla's third-quarter earnings call, Musk explained that while Optimus robots can already walk around the company's Palo Alto offices, the real challenge lies in creating a robot that is truly functional in the real world. "Bringing Optimus to market is an incredibly difficult task ... It's not like some walk in the park," he said. Musk highlighted the complexity of building a human-like hand and forearm, which he described as harder to engineer than the rest of the robot. "The human hand is an incredible thing," Musk said, noting that fingers have different lengths, strengths and degrees of freedom for a reason. Making the hand and forearm is an incredibly difficult engineering challenge. It's more difficult than the entire rest of the robot, he stated. See Also: Elizabeth Warren Says Trump 'Approved' The Largest Meat Company In World To Be Listed On NYSE Ignoring Corruption And Bribery History, Demands Answers Scaling Production Without A Supply Chain Musk also addressed the massive manufacturing challenge of producing millions of Optimus robots. Unlike cars or computers, there is no existing supply chain for humanoid robots, requiring Tesla to produce many components in-house. "Tesla actually has to be very vertically integrated and manufacture very deep into the supply chain, manufacture the parts internally because there just is no supply chain," he stated. Musk's Concern Is Because Of Influence, Not Compensation The CEO stressed that his main concern isn't personal profit but control over the future robot army. Musk said he wants to ensure strong influence over how the robots are used, even if he doesn't hold current control. Musk said, "My fundamental concern with regard to how much voting control I have at Tesla is if I go ahead and build this enormous robot army, can I just be ousted at some point in the future?" "That's what it comes down to in a nutshell. I don't feel comfortable wielding that robot army if I don't have at least a strong influence," he concluded. In September, members of Tesla's board of directors introduced a new compensation proposal for Musk that could reach up to $1 trillion. The proposal has received opposition from proxy advisory firms like International Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis. Tesla Breaks Four-Quarter Streak Of Misses With Q3 Revenue Beat Tesla reported third-quarter revenue of $28.10 billion, reflecting a 12% year-over-year increase and surpassing the Street consensus estimate of $26.24 billion. The company's performance marked its first revenue beat after four consecutive quarters of missing analyst expectations. Tesla said it plans to keep rolling out products that resonate with customers, including the Model YL, Model Y Performance and the new budget-friendly Model 3 and Model Y Standard editions. Price Action: Tesla shares slipped 0.82% during Wednesday's regular trading session and declined an additional 3.80% in after-hours trading, according to Benzinga Pro. Benzinga's Edge Stock Rankings indicate that TSLA exhibits robust price trend across short, medium and long-term periods. More detailed performance insights are available here. Read Next: Trump Turnberry Is 'Our Monalisa' Says Eric Trump As He Shrugs Off Millions In Losses -- 'We Don't Give A...' Photo Courtesy: Robert Way on Shutterstock.com Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. TSLATesla Inc$422.27-4.59%OverviewMarket News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs