On October 29, US media reported on Tuesday that Robin Denholm, the chairwoman of Tesla's board of directors, revealed that if Musk's $100 billion compensation package fails to gain approval at next week's annual shareholders' meeting, Tesla will start considering internal candidates to succeed Musk as CEO.

Denholm urged shareholders to back the compensation plan on Monday, expressing the hope that Musk would stay on to steer the company through its strategic shift towards autonomous driving and bionic robotics. This highlights Musk's pivotal role in shaping Tesla's corporate identity and bolstering investor confidence, even as the company faces mounting pressure to lessen its dependence on his individual leadership.

The proposed compensation plan outlines 12 equity incentive tiers for Musk, with performance benchmarks such as elevating the company's market capitalization to $8.5 trillion and achieving significant technological milestones in autonomous driving and robotics.

In recent times, the exit of several key executives has left Tesla with a thin management layer. Currently, besides Musk, Chief Financial Officer Vaibhav Taneja and Senior Vice President of Automotive Business Zhu Xiaotong stand out as the most central figures in the company's executive team.