Elon Musk sells 3% of his holdings in Tesla

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, sold part of his holdings in Tesla, following his recent Twitter poll asking the public whether he should sell part of his Tesla shares. This was Elon Musk’s first sales in more than five years since 2016 when he first sold his shares to cover income tax payments.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the Tesla CEO sold 4.53 million shares, which amounts to about 3% stake in the company, from Monday to Wednesday, raising over 5 billion dollars. Musk did not say where he would use the money.

Musk asked his Twitter followers Saturday whether they agree on him selling 10% of Tesla shares and promised that he would abide by the poll result. The Twitter poll was up for 24 hours, and 3.51 million people participated in the vote, about 58% of which agreed. Critics suggest that Musk’s selling may have illustrated his opposition and attempt to avoid the ruling U.S. Democratic Party proposal to introduce a billionaire tax, which many criticize as being double taxation.


Min Kim kimmin@donga.com