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Elon Musk Sells $1.1 Billion Worth Of Tesla Stock After Twitter Poll

Elon Musk Sells $1.1 Billion Worth Of Tesla Stock After Twitter Poll

The tech billionaire has sold off nearly a million shares to 'satisfy his tax withholding obligations'.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Elon Musk has officially put his money where his mouth is and sold off a chunk of his Tesla stock.

The CEO posted a poll on Twitter over the weekend that asked his millions of followers whether they would be keen on seeing him sell a portion of his share in the car company.

"Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10 percent of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?" he wrote.

His followers came back with a majority (57.9 per cent) voting yes and Elon said he would adhere to whatever the result was.

It's been days since the survey ended and many wondered whether he was just messing with everyone.

However, the tech billionaire has now made it official and he's sold off $1.1 billion worth of Tesla stock.

Documents filed to the SEC reveal he has auctioned off close to one million shares, which, at Tesla's current valuation, are worth a little more than a billion bucks.

In the documentation, Elon Musk noted that the sale was 'solely to satisfy the reporting person's tax withholding obligations related to the exercise of stock options'.

While that amount of money is something that most of us could only dream of, it's actually a tiny portion of what he was supposed to give.

Ten per cent of Musk's stock equates to around $20 billion, so it's unclear why there is such a huge shortfall. Maybe this whole thing was to pay off some tax obligations and it ended up being a lot less than he anticipated.

Alamy

He might have satisfied those obligations, but he's damaged Tesla's standing ever since launching the poll.

According to the BBC, Tesla shares fell by around 4.6 percent off the back of the tweet.

Musk's personal fortune has also reportedly plunged by a whopping $50 billion (£37bn) in just two days.

Despite the loss, he is still the richest man in the world.

He's also been under pressure to hand over $6 billion to the United Nations after it said that amount of money could seriously address world hunger.

The tech billionaire said he would happily hand over the money if they can show exactly how it will fix the problems they are claiming.

He wants to see the math and then he will work out whether it's feasible to give over the incredible amount of money.

Featured Image Credit: Jim Gensheimer/Bay Area News Group/MCT

Topics: tesla, elon musk, News