TOPLINE
Elon Musk sold roughly $6.9 billion worth of Tesla stock over the past week, according to new Securities and Exchange Commission filings, in a surprise offload that comes more than three months after the world’s richest man said there were “no further TSLA sales planned.”
KEY FACTS
Musk sold more than 7.9 million shares in dozens of transactions between Friday and Tuesday, at an average price of $875 per share, according to the filings.
The billionaire will owe an estimated $1.65 billion in federal capital gains taxes from the sale, leaving about $5.25 billion in take-home pay.
It’s not clear why Musk chose to sell—he did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes.
BIG NUMBER
More than $31 billion. That’s how much Tesla stock Musk has liquidated in a series of sales starting in November.
KEY BACKGROUND
Unlike earlier transactions, Musk’s sales this week were unexpected. The Tesla CEO hinted about his late 2021 sales in a November tweet, and he raised around $8.5 billion in pretax funds in a series of April sales after signing a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. The $8.5 billion was expected to go toward the purchase, but Musk reneged on the deal last month over purported concerns about the number of bots and spam accounts that populate the platform. Twitter quickly responded by filing a lawsuit against Musk in Delaware Chancery Court in an attempt to force the deal to go through. A trial is set to begin on October 17 if the two sides don’t reach a settlement.
FORBES VALUATION
We estimate Musk to be worth $255.1 billion, making him the wealthiest person on Earth.
Twitter Sues Elon Musk For Trying To Cancel Acquisition (Forbes)
By Nicholas Reimann, Forbes Staff