Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hit the headlines again after taking a 9.2% stake in Twitter based on the regulatory filing. This passive investment comprises 73.5 million shares and makes Musk a long-term investor.
Musk has more than once questioned the ability to communicate freely on this social media platform. Just last month, he actually tweeted about free speech on Twitter and hinted at the possibility of launching his own platform where free speech will be a priority.
Tesla’s CEO polled his Twitter followers, asking them whether the platform complies with the principles of free speech. Nearly 70% of his 80 million followers said no, and the electric-car maker CEO replied that a new medium was necessary because ‘free speech is essential to a functioning democracy.”
Although he is the biggest personality on Twitter, Musk has severally run into trouble on this platform. Up to date, he has been working to exit a deal he struck with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2018 that stops him from tweeting anything about Tesla without a pre-approval from other executives.
Musk also criticized Twitter‘s profile pictures linked to fungible tokens. According to him, the recent development shows that the platform has the wrong priorities. As a result, Twitter is under immense pressure to grow the list of new products and convince skeptical investors about its business growth plan. As of now, its share is still lagging behind its peers in the social media space.
The 9.2% stake has now pushed Musk to the top of the list of shareholders, while Twitter shares rose by 26% after the regularly filing. The value of this passive investment is around $2.89 billion. This announcement is definitely a major test for Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal. The company set ambitious goals to add 315 million daily users before the end of 2023 and increase annual revenue by $7.5 billion.
The Tesla and SpaceX founder is a staunch supporter of cryptocurrencies and uses Twitter to share his views about crypto. In 2021, Tesla’s CEO tweets about DOGE and BTC affected their prices. When Tesla announced in February 2021 that it would invest $1.5 billion in BTC, the price jumped by 19.5%. In March 2021, the prices of DOGE rose by 10% when Musk announced that he would not sell his crypto holdings. Today, Tesla’s shares rose by 1%, while Twitter’s shares went up by 26% to hit $49.79 in pre-market trading.
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