By Theo Francis and Becky Peterson

Elon Musk boosted his voting power in Tesla to 20% by turning some of his stock options into shares that he can immediately vote but can't sell until 2028.

Fresh off last week's SpaceX IPO, Musk made good on an April agreement with Tesla to convert outstanding options on roughly 300 million shares that he received from a 2018 pay package, securities filings show. The unusual transaction meant Musk didn't walk away with more plain-vanilla Tesla shares. Rather, he received restricted stock that will vest on Jan. 19, 2028, the date the options were originally set to expire.

However, the instruments "carry voting rights that may be exercised by Mr. Musk," according to one of Wednesday's filings. He gave up 17.5 million shares to cover the roughly $7.1 billion cost of exercising the options. Following the transactions, Musk held about 700 million Tesla shares, including shares he owns through a trust. That is about 19.9% of the current amount outstanding, he said in a securities disclosure.

Musk has previously said he wants to control 25% of Tesla to feel comfortable building artificial intelligence inside the automaker. His 2025 ownership in Tesla was around 15%. Musk has been consolidating his businesses this year. He merged his startup xAI with SpaceX before the rocket maker's initial public offering. He holds supervoting SpaceX shares that give him more than 80% of that company's vote.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 17, 2026 18:44 ET (22:44 GMT)

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