Elon Musk sells more than 930,000 shares of Tesla stock, worth $1.1B

Elon Musk is selling more than 930,000 shares of Tesla stock, according to financial disclosure documents published on Wednesday, a sale that is worth more than $1.1 billion and was initiated on Sept. 14, before the CEO surveyed Twitter users about his stock holdings.

The sizable sale was in part established to fulfill tax obligations that are connected to an exercise of stock options, CNBC noted.

Musk, who is also CEO of SpaceX, still owns more than 170 million shares of Tesla.

The financial disclosure documents revealing Musk’s sale were published days after the billionaire executive posed a poll to his Twitter followers asking if he should sell 10 percent of his stock holdings in the company.

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

Followers decisively supported the move. With roughly 3.5 million votes cast, 57.9 percent said they supported the initiative, with 42.1 saying they were opposed.

The executive said he would “abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes,” adding, “Note, I do not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere. I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock.”

Note, I do not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere. I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2021

Tesla stock fell by more than 15 percent after the poll between Monday and Tuesday, according to CNBC, but ultimately rebounded on Wednesday by more than 4 percent.

Friday’s poll was not the first time Musk has discussed selling his shares of Tesla on Twitter.

Earlier this month he said he was willing to sell shares of the stock if the United Nations (U.N.) could prove that $6 billion would solve the hunger crisis, after the director of a U.N. program asserted that a small percentage of the executive’s wealth could help quell the issue.

He has also used the popular social media platform to lay out his political views. Last month, Musk criticized a Democratic proposal for an annual tax on billionaires’ investment gains, responding to a tweet, “Eventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you.”