SAN FRANCISCO, May 28 (Reuters) - Elon Musk is offering

factory tours to 15 Tesla shareholders who vote on his $56

billion pay package at the upcoming meeting, the latest effort

by the electric vehicle maker to rally votes for the

compensation after a court struck it down.

The upcoming vote is seen as a referendum for Musk's

leadership at a time when investors worry that he is distracted

by his other ventures and that his often controversial comments

are weighing on the reputation and sales of Tesla.

The company is making an unusual and public effort to rally

support for the Musk's pay.

"Don't delay, vote today!" Tesla said on Tuesday.

The tour to Tesla's production lines for Cybertrucks and

Model Ys in Texas will take place on June 12, the day before

Tesla's annual shareholders' meeting, Tesla said on its website.

"Please let us know if you have any questions about voting

your Tesla shares!" Musk said on social media platform X,

formerly known as Twitter, which he owns.

Musk has threatened to build artificial intelligence

products outside of Tesla if he can't get 25% voting power at

Tesla, the world's most valuable automaker.

Musk, the world's richest person, currently owns around 13%

of Tesla stock, and exercising his stock options would result in

him owning a total of 22% of the company.

He has also started AI company xAI, which raised $6 billion

in its latest funding.

Tesla has asked shareholders to reaffirm their approval of

Musk's record-breaking $56 billion compensation that was set in

2018, but was rejected by a judge who found the package was

negotiated by directors who appeared beholden to Musk.

The move came shortly after Musk said Tesla is laying off

more than 10% of its global workforce amid falling sales and

intensifying competition, especially from Chinese rivals.

Proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis said on Saturday it has

urged Tesla shareholders to reject the pay package, citing

Musk's "slate of extraordinarily time-consuming projects."

According to data and research firm S&P Global Market

Intelligence, 44% of Tesla's common stock is held by

nonprofessional shareholders that include retail investors.

That is the most of any of the 10 largest companies

including Apple ( AAPL ) and Nvidia ( NVDA ) in the S&P 500 by

market capitalization.