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Tesla (TSLA) is without a doubt the pioneer in the production of electric vehicles (EVs). The company’s success in developing sleek, modern-looking plug-in electric vehicles is propelling EVs from niche into mainstream marketing amid the global energy transition rush.
Tesla, named for American-Serbian inventor and electrical engineer Nikolai Tesla, is inextricably linked to Elon Musk, its CEO and largest shareholder. The mercurial and eccentric entrepreneur, who also has ownership in multiple tech companies, wields considerable power within the company.
Elon oversees all product design, engineering, and global manufacture for Tesla’s electric automobiles, battery products, and solar energy products, according to the company’s website.
Elon’s erratic actions and remarks frequently cause Tesla’s share price to go through extreme swings. One example of this could be when he tweeted on 7 August 2018 that he could take Tesla private at $420 per share, which according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), was a substantial premium to its trading price at the time.
Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018
The SEC brought a fraud charge against Tesla which led to his removal as Tesla’s chairman and a hefty fine of a combined $40 million for Musk and Tesla in September 2018.. In 2022, Tesla’s share price dropped by more than 60% after Musk bought social media platform Twitter, which was later renamed X.
The company is still the world’s largest EV maker, despite its market capitalization having roughly halved to $627.39 billion as of October 2023, from the peak of $1.23 trillion on 6 November 2021.
As a publicly traded company, it also has other investors who own a large number of TSLA shares, apart from Elon Musk.
In this article, we answer the question: Who are the stakeholders of Tesla?
The Silicon Valley-based car manufacturer has various investors, including individual, retail, and institutional shareholders.
As of 30 June 2023, Tesla had 3.179 billion shares, based on Nasdaq’s data.
According to Wallstreetzen, institutional shareholders hold 41.8% of Tesla’s outstanding stock. Insiders, including founder Elon Musk and other executives, own 13.94%, and the remaining 44.62% are held by retail investors.
Below, we look into details about who owns the most of Tesla’s stock among individual and institutional shareholders.
1. Elon Musk
According to Tesla’s 2022 Annual Report, Tesla’s CEO and founder, Elon Musk, owns 715.022 million shares, accounting for 20.6% of the 3.169 billion outstanding shares as of the end of March 2023, unchanged from the end of December 2022. That makes Musk Tesla’s biggest shareholder.
Musk has served as a member of Tesla’s board since April 2004 and as CEO since October 2008. The eccentric entrepreneur and tech genius also owns a range of tech companies, including rocket and spacecraft manufacturing
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or Space, and social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, He bought Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion.
Prior to setting up SpaceX, Musk co-founded the electronic payment system Paypal, which was acquired by eBay in October 2022.
2. Zachary Kirkhorn
According to Tesla’s 2022 Annual Report, Zachary J. Kirkhorn was the second largest individual shareholder of Tesla with 2.68 million shares, owning 0.08% of the stock.
However, Kirkhorn unexpectedly stepped down as Tesla’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in August 2023. Tesla and Kirkhorn have not provided an explanation for his exit. Since Kirkhorn’s resignation, there have been no new disclosures about his ownership.
3. Kimbal Musk
Based on an SEC filing, Elon’s younger brother owns 1.60 million shares of Tesla as of 2 April 2023, dropping from 2.05 million shares at the end of March 2023, as stated in the TSLA 2022 Annual Report. While he’s one of Tesla’s major shareholders, his holding only accounts for 0.05% of the company’s outstanding shares.
For more than twenty years, Kimbal has co-founded businesses in the technology, hospitality, entertainment, and agricultural sectors. His passion, however, is in the culinary industry, where he owns a group of restaurants, including the farm-to-table restaurant The Kitchen, which he founded in 2004.
From 2013 to 2019, he served as the director of Chipotle Mexican Grill. He is also the founder of the urban farming companies Square Roots and BigGreen.
On top of his food business, Kimbal is still involved in Elon’s business and tech business. He serves as a director at Tesla. Through January 2022, he served as a director at Elon’s SpaceX. He is also the co-founder and CEO of the drone technology firm Nova Sky Stories.
4. Ira Ehrenpreis
Tesla’s independent director held 1.68 million shares, accounting for 0.05% of the electric car maker’s outstanding shares as of the end of March, according to its 2022 Annual Report.
Ehrenpreis is the founder and managing partner of venture capital firm DBL Partners which invests in clean energy, healthcare, information technology, and sustainable products and services.
5. Robyn Denholm
The Australian executive owns 1.67 million of Tesla’s shares. Denholm, who has been Tesla’s independent director since 2014, has worked for tech and auto companies in Australia, including Telstra Corporation Limited and Toyota Motor Australia.
1. The Vanguard Group
The world’s second-largest asset management owned 222.48 million shares of Tesla, accounting for nearly 7% of Tesla’s stock as of June 30, 2023, according to Nasdaq. It was up from 217.85 million as of 31 March 2023.
Unlike other asset management firms, the Pennsylvania-based company is not owned by shareholders. Instead, investors who put their money in the company’s fund, own it. As of April 2023, Vanguard had $8.2 trillion of assets under management (AUM), according to Advratings.
2. Blackrock
As of the end of June 2023, Blackrock held 185.89 million shares in Tesla, making up 5.8% of Tesla’s outstanding shares.
The New York-based company is the world’s largest asset management firm, managing $9.1 trillion in assets under its belt, according to Advratings. It has a market capitalization of $95 billion as of October 16, 2023.
3. State Street Corp
The Massachusetts-based company (NYSE: STT) is one of the world’s leading asset managers, with $3.7 trillion in assets under management (AUM) and $40 trillion in assets under custody as of 30 September 2023.
As of June 30, 2023, State Street Corporation owned 104.11 million of Tesla’s shares valued at $20.54 billion, making it Tesla’s third-largest institutional shareholder, according to Nasdaq’s data. State Street Corp.’s holding makes up 3.27% of Tesla’s outstanding stock.
4. Geode Capital Management
Geode Capital Management is Tesla’s fourth-largest institutional shareholder, with 51.66 million shares valued at $10.19 billion, accounting for 1.62% of Tesla’s outstanding shares.
Founded in 2001, the Massachusetts-based asset management firm has $1 billion in AUM.
5. Capital World Investors
The privately held firm is one of the world’s oldest investment managers, dating back to the 1930s during the Great Depression. According to Advratings, the US firm ranks tenth among the world’s largest asset management companies with $2.3 trillion in AUM as of June 30, 2023.
Capital World Investors owns 42.27 million shares of the electric car maker, valued at $8.3 billion. Its holdings account for 1.3% of Tesla’s outstanding stock.
The Bottom Line
Elon Musk is Tesla’s largest shareholder, owning around 20% of the company’s total outstanding stock. Consequently, his share ownership is far larger than that of other individual and institutional shareholders.
Contrarily, Vanguard and BlackRock, Tesla’s two largest institutional shareholders, own 6.9% and 5.8% of the shares, respectively, while individual individuals own less than 1%.
With an overwhelmingly large holding, Elon will continue to have a significant influence on Tesla’s future business and growth
