Tesla Calls Dec. 3 Shareholder Vote on Musk, Denholm and Straubel Board Terms

Tesla has filed its definitive proxy statement with the SEC and formally asked shareholders to re-elect Elon Musk, board chair Robyn Denholm and co-founder JB Straubel to the board of directors, setting a December 3, 2026 vote. All three are Class I director nominees standing for new three-year terms. The meeting will run virtually, with a limited number of shareholders able to attend in person at Gigafactory Texas in Austin.

The ballot carries two other items alongside the director elections: a non-binding advisory vote on 2025 executive pay and the ratification of PricewaterhouseCoopers as Tesla’s independent auditor for 2026. The proxy filing, submitted October 19, is the clearest signal yet that Tesla’s board wants continuity at the top heading into a stretch where the company is betting its $1.5 trillion valuation on humanoid robots, autonomous ride-hailing hardware and in-house AI silicon rather than on vehicle sales growth alone.

The timing matters. Tesla reports Q3 results on October 21, and the vote comes as the company scales its Cybercab robotaxi service in Austin — where an open NHTSA audit into the steering-wheel-free design requires sworn answers from the company by October 30. Shareholders are being asked, in effect, to endorse the hardware-first strategy while regulators are still asking questions about its flagship product.

What to watch: director elections at Tesla have become flashpoints for broader debates about Musk’s pay and governance. With the stock trading around $368 — up from a $297 low over the past year but well below its $499 high — the December 3 vote will show how much patience shareholders still have for the long game.