Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
According to a recent securities filing, Elon Musk sold 22 million Tesla shares worth $3.58 billion this week. This is his second sale since he bought Twitter for $44 billion in October.
Musk — who just lost his richest person in the world status to Louis Vuitton CEO Bernard Arnault — has sold almost $40 billion in Tesla stock in the past year, even as investor worries over his Twitter purchase distracting him from Tesla have prompted a 60% free fall across 2022. Tesla stock reached its lowest point in over two years this week.
CNBC cites VerityData, a financial research company, in reporting that “Musk has sold 94,202,321 shares so far this year at an average price of $243.46 per share for pre-tax proceeds of approximately $22.93 billion.”
Ben Silverman, VerityData’s director of research, told CNBC in an email that dating back to November of last year, Musk’s sales “were expertly timed, so Tesla shareholders need to pay attention to Musk’s actions and not his words – or lack thereof when it comes to his recent selling.”
News of the Tesla CEO’s most recent cashout comes following a New York Times report that Musk has been cutting costs at Twitter by not paying rent for the social media giant’s San Francisco office or any other Twitter-owned location around the world. The Times also reported that he might not pay severance packages to fired employees. If so, he might have to use some of his new profits to pay for more attorneys, as Twitter will likely face many new lawsuits.