Proxy Voting Weekly Digest - Week Ended June 7, 2024

All eyes were on AI-related shareholder proposals in the first week of June, with seven of such proposals going to a vote. The results were somewhat mixed. For example, a proposal requesting a transparency report on the company’s use of AI received 43% support at Netflix, 24% at Warner Bros. Discovery, but only 2% at Paramount Global. (That same proposal received 37% at Apple earlier this year.) Moreover, three AI-related proposals at Google’s parent company Alphabet received 19%, 18%, and 7% support, respectively. While many factors are at play, some of the discrepancy in voting results can be attributed to the dual class voting structures at Alphabet and Paramount Global, leading to an unequal distribution of shareholder voting power and skewing the overall results.