On Tuesday, Elon Musk sold additional Tesla stock, for $1.02 billion, bringing him closer to his goal of selling a 10% interest in the EV manufacturing behemoth. On Tuesday, the billionaire sold 934,090 shares to cover taxes related to the exercise of his stock options. Musk also exercised options to buy approximately 1.6 million Tesla shares at the same time. According to the Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk's stake in Tesla has increased from roughly 170.5 million shares to over 177 million shares after exercising his options this quarter.
Elon Musk will need to sell around 17 million shares in total to fulfil his goal of selling 10% of Tesla stock, assuming his pledge excludes exercisable options. In a recent interview with the satirical website Babylon Bee, he remarked, "I sold enough shares to get to roughly 10% plus the option exercise stuff."
Since a Twitter poll last month asking if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock, the billionaire has started dumping Tesla stock. At the same time, he has been exercising his stock options to buy new shares. Elon Musk has exercised stock options that expire next year under the Rule 10b5-1 trading plan he established in September. While selling nearly $15 billion in Tesla stock, he also executed options to buy about 17 million stock options, thereby expanding his interest in the electric carmaker.
The stock options exercise accounted for 10.3 million of the 15.7 million shares sold. Elon Musk sold an extra 5.4 million shares, taking advantage of the strong increase in Tesla stock. According to a Reuters storey, Musk has now exercised all of his options expiring next year, signifying the conclusion of his stock sales. So far this year, the billionaire has sold $16.4 billion worth of stock, closing in on his 10% target.