New Delhi: SpaceX founder and Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elon Musk has reported a 9.2 per cent stake in Twitter Inc as of March 14, 2022, according to US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
According to a report by Bloomberg, the regulatory filing showed that 9.2 per cent stake by Musk is potentially making him the biggest stakeholder in the micro-blogging site.
Twitter Inc in a filing reported Musk owns 73,486,938 shares of common stock in his personal capacity.
Following the update, shares of Twitter jumped 26 per cent in pre-market trading after the filing. This comes just days after Musk tweeting that he was giving ‘serious thought’ to building a new social media platform.
Shares of other social media companies such as Meta Platforms and Snapchat owner Snap Inc were also trading higher following the news.
According to reports, the value of Musk’s shares in Twitter is up to $2.9 billion based on the stock’s Friday close. The shares are held by the Elon Musk Revocable Trust.
Earlier, Musk, who is very active on Twitter, had put out a tweet asking users if they believe Twitter adheres to the principle of free speech. The Tesla CEO has been vocal of the social media platform and its policies of late and has said the company is undermining democracy by failing to adhere to such principles.
Elon Musk has over 8 crore followers on Twitter since joining in 2009 and has used the platform to make several announcements, including teasing a go-private deal for Tesla that landed him in regulatory scrutiny.
Musk also leads brain-chip start-up Neuralink and infrastructure firm The Boring Company.
Meanwhile, Musk and Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s billionaire co-founder, have had some common ground in terms of dismissing the so-called Web3, a vague term for a utopian version of the internet that is decentralised.