By John Ikani
Elon Musk has sold about $5bn in shares amounting to roughly 3% of his Tesla holdings, the billionaire reported in filings on Wednesday, just days after he polled Twitter users about selling 10% of his stake.
Tesla is the world’s most valuable carmaker, with a stock market valuation of more than $1tn.
Musk on Saturday polled Twitter users about selling 10% of his stake, helping to push down Tesla’s share price after a majority said they agreed with the sale.
“Much is made lately of unrealised gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock,” he tweeted.
“I will abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes.”
The poll attracted more than 3.5 million votes, with nearly 58% voting in favour of the share sale.
The company’s shares fell by around 16% in the two days after the poll came out in favour of him selling shares, before regaining some ground on Wednesday.
Mr Musk also highlighted that he is not paid in cash by Tesla: “I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock.”
Part of the latest transaction saw him exercising stock options that he was awarded by the carmaker in 2012 as part of his pay package.
Such transactions trigger income taxes, which are typically settled using money raised from immediately selling some of the newly acquired shares.
It was his first sale of shares since 2016, when he last exercised stock options. At the time he also sold some of the shares to cover an income tax bill of close to $600m.
Mr Musk is the world’s richest person, with a personal fortune estimated to be more than $280bn.
