Elon Musk has now sold nearly $5 billion USD of Tesla stock after asking his Twitter followers via poll whether he should let go of some of his personal holdings.
Last week, Musk asked his nearly 63 million followers whether or not he should sell 10% of his stake in Tesla to pay taxes. As of Thursday, 3.5 million people had voted, with 58% in favor of the move.
Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock.
Do you support this?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2021
“I will abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes,” Musk promised, adding that his earnings as CEO come in the form of stocks.
According to several financial filings reported by CNBC, Musk’s trust has so far sold more than 3.5 million shares worth over $3.88 billion USD. Earlier on Wednesday, Musk sold a block of 933,000 Tesla shares worth about $1.1 billion USD. The filings reveal that Musk had been planning to sell some of his shares since September, and had scheduled the sales in advance of the Twitter poll.
According to the outlet, Musk still holds over 166 million shares. This is his first sale of shares since 2016.
Last month, Tesla reached a valuation of over $1 trillion USD. Analysts have predicted that the success of Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla ventures may soon propel his wealth to over $1 trillion USD.
In other news, Tesla is holding on to its $1.5 billion USD Bitcoin investment.
