After completing his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, Elon Musk has sold another $3.95 billion worth of Tesla shares, as per The Verge.
A filing from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which was published on Tuesday, shows that the Tesla CEO has sold 19.5 million more shares of his car company.
Musk Already Sold a Total of $19.3 Billion Worth of Tesla Shares This Year
With the latest sales of the company's shares, the total value of Tesla shares that the CEO sold this year now amounted to $19.3 billion, according to Forbes.
In April this year, the new Twitter CEO sold $8.4 billion in shares of the electric company. Meanwhile, another $6.9 billion was sold in August.
In 2021, the year when the stock jumped over 50 percent, the billionaire sold almost $22 billion worth of Tesla shares.
The Tesla CEO announced after the sales in April that he would no longer sell Tesla shares in the future. But he once again sold shares in August. After that, he announced once again that he was done selling.
The billionaire said that those shares were offloaded in August in a possible scenario that he would be buying Twitter. During that time, he was facing a lawsuit from the social media platform for attempting to back out of the deal.
The sales of Tesla stocks came as the company's stock hit its lowest price in a year. The company closed at its 52-week low of $191.30 per share on Tuesday.
After the sales, the billionaire currently owns 445.6 million Tesla shares, or nearly 14% of the electric car company. This excludes options. The CEO's stake is now closer to 23%, including his exercisable options.
According to Forbes, before the sales were made, Musk's worth was estimated to be $197.4 billion, which still makes him the richest person in the world.
Read Also: Elon Musk Discussed How Airbags Could Be Safer Than Seatbelts, Debunks Car Rating
Did Elon Musk Use Tesla Shares' Sales to Cover His Twitter Purchase?
While the reason behind the sales of Tesla shares is unclear, it is speculated that its proceeds have been used to partially cover the remaining portion of Musk's Twitter purchase.
It is estimated that the billionaire still has $13.3 billion from previous Tesla share sales. It is also speculated that he used that to pay for part of the $44 billion purchase of Twitter.
Aside from using his own capital to complete the purchase of the social media platform, the Tesla CEO relied on his partners to finance the deal.
Among his partners are equity investors Binance, Andreessen Horowitz, Ron Baron's BAMCO, Twitter's former CEO Jack Dorsey, and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, as per CNBC.
Following the huge investment of the Saudi Aradia prince on Twitter, Sen. Chris Murphy has called for an investigation of the implication of the deal on the national security of the US.
Since completing the deal, the new CEO of Twitter has implemented a number of changes in the social media platform. First, he fired former CEO Parag Agrawal along with other top officials.
He also dissolved the board of directors and made himself CEO of the company. Now, he announced that he's making the verified account available to everyone for $8.
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