Tesla shareholders have overwhelmingly voted to award Elon Musk a massive $878bn pay package, rather than risk losing him, backing their “superstar CEO” to drive the electric vehicle manufacturer toward a market value of $8.5 trillion within a decade.

Over 75 percent of shareholders backed the plan, company officials said, and news of the approval sent cheers through the audience of investors at Tesla’s annual shareholders meeting in Austin, Texas.

The vote signals investor confidence that Musk is the only man who can lead the business into its next phase of growth into artificial intelligence , self-driving robo-taxis, and humanoid robots.

“I’d like to thank the Tesla board for their immense support,” Musk told the crowd. “We have a fantastic board, a fantastic group of sharehol

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