Why is Elon Musk selling Tesla Shares? All we know so far

Elon Musk has recently sold his Tesla stocks worth about $6.9 billion, which roughly translates to Rs. 51,289 crores. The world's richest man sells some of these stocks in Tesla after he conducted a Twitter poll on November 7, 2021. In the poll, Musk asked his audience whether or not they supported him selling 10% of this stake in Tesla. Further, the Tesla CEO also said that he will abide by the result of the poll, "whichever way it goes."

About three and a half million people turned in their response on Musk's Twitter poll, from which about 57.9% responded in favour of Musk selling his stocks. Musk also mentions in the following tweet that he does not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere, he only has stocks and hence the only way for him to pay taxes is to sell his stocks. It is important to note that the stock sale was Musk's first in five years. According to CNBC, the taxes roughly amount to $15 billion. 

How many shares will be sold by Elon?

Elon Musk is the top shareholder of Tesla and has so far sold 6.36 million shares during this week. However, in order to sell 10% of his holding, which accounts for about 17 million shares, Musk still has to sell about 10 million more shares. That also implies that the richest man in the world holds about 170 million stocks of Tesla. Elon already took the approval of more than one and a half million people on Twitter through his poll. 

As Elon sold his stocks, Tesla's shares fell more than 15% this week, having an impact of more than $180 billion, which roughly translates to Rs. 13,38,210 crores. And despite this fall in Tesla's stock price and the significant loss, Tesla is still the most valuable automaker company in the world. Before selling the stocks, Elon owned 23% of Tesla's shares. The history of these stocks dates back to 2012 when Musk was offered the stocks at $6.24 per share. These stocks are going to expire by next year, and hence, Elon has to sell them off. 

Image: AP/SHUTTERSTOCK