According to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla’s founder and CEO, Elon Musk sold 19.5 million shares between Friday and Tuesday.
The richest man in the world sells more Tesla stock to raise money, but hasn’t provided an explanation just days after letting go of about half of Twitter’s workers.
The reason for the transaction was not made public, but it reduced Musk’s stake in Tesla to about 14%, according to the news agency Reuters.
Along with many other so-called growth stocks, which are considered vulnerable to the more challenging global economy but especially rising levels of inflation, the value of Tesla’s shares has fallen by over half this year.
Tesla’s worth, however, also takes into account a number of sales made by Musk personally to pay for the $44 billion purchase of Twitter and broader shareholder concern that Tesla would lose focus now that the billionaire behind Tesla, Twitter, and SpaceX had more demands on his time.
The majority of analysts had predicted that Musk would sell more Tesla stock to pay for the Twitter agreement.
He had promised to fund the transaction with $46.5 billion in equity and debt, which would have paid the $44 billion price tag and the closing charges.
Banks, notably Bank of America and Morgan Stanley, agreed to contribute $13 billion in loan funding.
Musk committed $33.5 billion in stock, which included his own $4 billion 9.6% share in Twitter and the $7.1 billion he had raised from equity investors, including Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison.
Despite uncertainty that caused him to back out of the agreement in May, he completed the sale last month. Since then, he has fired almost half of the staff and announced that he will charge customers $8 per month for blue checkmarks that confirm the legitimacy of a user’s account.
Musk has not yet provided a reason for why he sold his Tesla stake.
