Elon Musk sold around 9.6 million shares of Tesla stock this week, worth about $8.5 billion, according to regulatory filings.
Musk still holds about 16% of the automaker.
The value of the sales in the filings disclosed were initially around $4 billion, per TechCrunch calculations. Later filings showed sales more than double that initial amount.
The executive said in a tweet on Thursday: “No further TSLA sales planned after today.”
The filings don’t reveal why Musk sold his shares, something he’s been wont to do. The money could possibly go toward his recent controversial plans to purchase social media platform Twitter; however, $9.6 billion makes just a dent in the $44 billion the acquisition will cost.
If Musk backs out of the deal, he’s on the hook for $1 billion, per the termination fee of the deal with Twitter, so at least that amount would be covered by these sales.
Updated: The article was updated to reflect further sales of Tesla shares. The initial article stated Musk had sold 4 million shares of Tesla stock. Later filings showed he sold 9.6 million shares.