Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has sold $3.95 billion worth of shares in the electric vehicle maker, according to U.S. regulatory filings, days after he completed his purchase of Twitter for $44 billion.
According to documents made public by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, between Friday and Tuesday, Musk sold 19.5 million shares, causing his net worth to go below $200 billion as a result of investors selling Tesla stock..
The latest share sale leaves Musk with a stake of roughly 14% in Tesla, according to a Reuters calculation.
The purpose of the sale was not disclosed.
The latest sale dump comes as analysts had widely expected Musk to sell additional Tesla shares to finance the Twitter deal, Reuters reported.
Musk, the world’s richest man, had asserted in April he was done selling Tesla stock. Still, he went on to sell another $6.9 billion worth Tesla shares in August and said the sale was conducted to pay for the social media platform.
After selling a portion of his ownership in Tesla, including the sales made last year, Musk, the richest man in the world, has nearly $20 billion in cash. According to a calculation by Reuters, this would have needed him to raise an additional $2 billion to $3 billion to finance the buyout.
Tesla has lost nearly half its market value and Musk’s net worth slumped by $70 billion ever since he bid for Twitter in April.
Twitter and Tesla did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
After assuming control of Twitter last month, Musk took drastic action, firing half the staff and announcing plans to charge for blue check verification marks.
For the acquisition, the billionaire promised to contribute $46.5 billion in equity and loan finance, which would pay for the transaction’s $44 billion price tag and closing charges. A total of 13 billion dollars in debt funding has been committed by banks, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp.
Musk had tried to walk away from the deal in May, alleging that Twitter understated the number of bot and spam accounts on the platform. This led to a series of lawsuits between the two parties.
