[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, announced on the 8th (local time) that he sold Tesla shares worth more than 5 trillion won, according to CNBC and other media. This sale news came after Musk acquired the social networking service Twitter on the 27th of last month.
According to reports, Musk stated in a report submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that he sold 19.5 million Tesla shares between the 4th and 8th. Converted to price, this amounts to $3.95 billion (approximately 5.4 trillion won).
The scale of Tesla shares Musk has disposed of this year is close to $20 billion. After announcing the Twitter acquisition in April, he sold 4.4 million Tesla shares worth $8.5 billion that same month, and in August, he sold 7.92 million shares worth $6.9 billion.
Afterwards, Musk had stated that he had no plans to sell additional Tesla shares. His recent sale is interpreted as being driven by the need to secure funds for the Twitter acquisition. He completed the $44 billion Twitter acquisition process last month.
To acquire Twitter, Musk not only poured the cash raised from selling Tesla shares but also attracted investors such as Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Ron Barron's BAMCO, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, and Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz.
On the same day, Tesla's stock price closed at $191.30 on the Nasdaq market in New York, down 2.93% from the previous day. The Tesla stock price fell below the $200 mark for the first time in 17 months the day before. Tesla's stock price has dropped 46% this year.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as of that day, Musk's net worth had decreased by $90.8 billion this year alone, standing at $179 billion.
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