Elon Musk Unloads $5B in Tesla Stock

Since Twitter voted that he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock, Elon Musk has sold off about $5 billion worth of shares. The Tesla CEO on Monday sold $1.1 billion worth—in a plan that was set in motion in September, long before the poll, MarketWatch notes—and then, on Tuesday and Wednesday, sold about 3.5 million shares, netting around $3.88 billion between the two sales. The Tuesday and Wednesday sales were not scheduled sales, CNBC reports. The $1.1 billion he made from his initial sale of nearly a million shares will go toward paying tax obligations for stock options he was granted in September, the AP reports.

Musk owned more than 170 million shares prior to the sales, so he's sold about 2.5% of his shares so far, meaning there's still a ways to go before he reaches the promised 10%. As of June, he was Tesla's largest shareholder, with an ownership stake in the company of about 17%. Most of Musk's fortune is in stock options, and he does not receive a cash salary, so has made it clear he will need to sell stock to pay taxes. This is the first block of shares Musk has sold since 2016, CNN reports. (More Elon Musk stories.)