The sale of 934,091 shares came after Musk wrote on Twitter he is “almost done” trimming his stake in Tesla, clarifying an earlier comment in an interview with a satirical website that he’d already reached his target.
“I sold stock that should roughly make my total Tesla share sale roughly 10%,” the world’s richest person told Babylon Bee in an interview that also addressed his wealth, taxes and priorities. He also clarified on social media that more sales are coming under a preprogrammed plan. Musk’s earlier comments helped propel Tesla stock to its best day since November 1. The shares rose 7.5% to $1,008.87 in New York on Wednesday and the company’s value climbed back above $1-trillion .
Musk has been offloading Tesla stock since asking his Twitter followers in November whether he should sell some of his stake. It’s unclear whether the poll had any actual bearing on his plans. The CEO said months earlier he was likely to exercise a big block of stock options towards the end of the year, and he set up a trading plan to sell shares before his tweet.