Elon Musk sold another $3.6 billion (£2.9 billion) in Tesla stock in the same week after he lost the title of world’s richest man to France’s Bernard Arnault.
Elon Musk sold another $3.6 billion (£2.9 billion) in Tesla stock in the same week after he lost the title of world’s richest man to France’s Bernard Arnault. With the disposal, Musk has now earned more than $20 billion this year from the sale of his shares in the electric vehicle manufacturer, according to a regulatory filing.
Despite the filing not specifying a reason for the selling of 22 million shares between Monday and Wednesday last week, the Tesla CEO has been raising money to pay for his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter.
It may be mentioned that since announcing his acquisition of Twitter, the billionaire who gained control of the social media business in October has sold four tranches of shares totaling about $23 billion. It’s the third sale since it was announced in April that there would be no more TSLA sales to support the deal. Furthermore, Elon Musk did not comment on the reason if the sale.
The sale comes as shareholders expressed concern about Tesla’s future under the leadership of what some view to be a highly distracted CEO.
Elon Musk arranged for $12.7 billion in bank debt to finance the Twitter acquisition and revealed $7 billion in stock pledges from other investors this year, meaning he would be liable for more than $24 billion of the purchase price. The sale comes as shareholders expressed concern about Tesla’s future under the leadership of what some view to be a highly distracted CEO.
It may be noted that Twitter suspended an account that was publishing publicly available data on Musk’s private jet’s activities. Musk has earlier used the account’s existence as proof that he would not put his personal interests ahead of his supposed free speech values in running Twitter.
Elon Musk announced a change in Twitter’s location sharing regulations after complaining that the account was endangering his family.
Forbes and Bloomberg, which track the wealth of billionaires, claimed last week that Arnault, the CEO of luxury conglomerate LVMH, had surpassed Musk as the richest person in the world.
Tesla’s share price decline has caused Musk to lose his prized position as the world’s richest man, sliding to second place behind luxury tycoon Bernard Arnault.
Forbes and Bloomberg, which track the wealth of billionaires, claimed last week that Arnault, the CEO of luxury conglomerate LVMH, had surpassed Musk as the richest person in the world. According to Bloomberg, Arnault, who oversees companies including Louis Vuitton and Dom Pérignon, is worth $180 billion, while Musk is valued at $163 billion.
Elon Musk’s fortune temporarily fell below Arnault’s last week before reclaiming the top spot, just to lose it again last week. According to data provider Refinitiv, the majority of Musk’s fortune is represented by stocks in Tesla, in which he owns more than 13%.
Tesla’s stock price has fallen by half this year, underperforming both the auto industry and the Nasdaq, which is more broadly tech-focused and down around 30% this year.
Forbes and Bloomberg, which track the wealth of billionaires, claimed last week that Arnault, the CEO of luxury conglomerate LVMH, had surpassed Musk as the richest person in the world
In total, Musk has sold 94.2 million shares of Tesla this year, up to and including last week’s transaction, at an average price of $243 per share, VerityData reported. These sales have brought in pre-tax earnings of just under $23 billion.
Musk contributed more than $20 billion of his own money to the purchase of Twitter in October, along with $7.1 billion from associates and roughly $4 billion from his prior ownership in the social media network.
He does, however, own other profitable companies, like as the rocket company SpaceX, which is reportedly in talks to issue shares with a potential value of up to $150 billion.
Along with Tesla, Twitter and SpaceX, Elon Musk’s other ventures include the Boring Company, a tunnelling firm, and Neuralink, a startup building interfaces to link the human brain to computers.
