Elon Musk Buys Large Twitter Stake, Now Biggest Shareholder

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has acquired a 9.2% stake in Twitter to become the company’s biggest shareholder, a week after hinting he might build a new social media platform.

According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Tesla owner bought over 73 million Twitter shares on March 14, 2022, a stake worth $2.89 billion.

The regulatory filing released on Monday showed Twitter’s shares soared to up to 27% in pre-market trading, with Musk owning four times more than Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, who owns 2.25% of stake.

Musk, who is a regular Twitter user, recently said he was considering building a new social media platform. On March 26, the SpaceX founder polled his 80 million followers on Twitter if they thought the platform allowed “free speech”.

“Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” he tweeted.

He added that Twitter serves as the “de facto public town square” and failing to adhere to free speech principles undermines democracy. “Is a new platform needed?” he posed, adding that he was giving serious thought to starting his own.