Hype Pays Well: Elon Musk Sells Tesla Stock Worth $6.9 Billion

Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold roughly $6.9 billion worth of Tesla stock in the past week according to recent SEC filings. The sale of 7.9 million shares of Tesla comes just months after Musk claimed “no further TSLA sales planned” on social media.

Forbes reports that just over three months after stating that there were “no further TSLA sales planned,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk sold approximately $6.9 billion worth of company stock according to recent filings with the SEC.

Musk reportedly sold more than 7.9 million shares in dozens of transactions between Friday and Tuesday at an average price of $875 per share. Musk will owe an estimated $1.65 billion in federal capital gains taxes from the sale, leaving him with $5.25 billion in cash.

Since November, Musk has liquidated over $31 billion in Tesla stock in a series of sales. In November 2021, Musk tweeted about possible plans to sell stock near the end of the year. After selling more than $15 billion in Tesla shares, he claimed his sales were “almost done.” He later raised approximately $8.5 billion in pretax funds in a series of April sales following the signing of a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter which he has attempted to pull out of and is currently facing litigation over.

Unlike previous stock sales, however, Musk’s sales this week were not planned. The $8.5 billion was expected to aid in the purchase of Twitter but it is currently unknown how Musk plans to spend it as he faces a lawsuit against Twitter in Delaware Chancery Court as the social media company attempts to force him to close the deal. A trial is set to begin on October 17 if Musk and Twitter fail to reach a settlement.

Musk recently made serious accusations against the social media company in the countersuit recently made public.

Breitbart News reported:

Musk’s countersuit makes it clear that he wants to be free from the deal he agreed to in April to purchase the site. Musk alleges that Twitter engaged in fraud, breach of contract, and violation of the Texas Securities Act. Musk’s attorney is arguing that while Twitter claims to have 238 million monetizable daily active users, the proportion that actually sees ads is 65 million lower.

Musk further alleges that the majority of ads are shown only to less than 16 million users, which is less than seven percent of the number of users Twitter claims can earn the company revenue by seeing ads.

“Twitter played a months-long game of hide-and-seek to attempt to run out the clock before the Musk Parties could discern the truth about these representations, which they needed to close,” the countersuit alleges. “The more Twitter evaded even simple inquiries, the more the Musk Parties grew to suspect that Twitter had misled them.”

Forbes estimates that Musk is worth $255.1 billion, making him the wealthiest person on the planet.

Read more at Forbes here.