Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, now owns 9.2% of Twitter after purchasing $2.89 billion in stock. This information was obtained after the US Securities and Exchange Commission filing. This purchase is following recent criticism by Elon Musk over the free speech policies the social media platform has.
Elon Musk is a very avid Twitter user and has over 80 million followers. But the platform also has brought him a lot of trouble, as in 2018, he tweeted out that he had funding secured to take Tesla private at $420 a share, setting off an SEC lawsuit costing him $20 million and the spot he had as chairman of the board.
Along with this comment, Elon Musk also launched a Twitter poll last week saying if users believed Twitter regularly adhered to its freedom of speech principle. He also said that he could be starting his own social media platform while giving it serious thought.
Elon Musk is the platform’s largest shareholder and this could eventually lead to a buyout. These Twitter shares have reportedly surged more than 25% in premarket trading.
