In the space of three days, between Monday and Wednesday of this week, Elon Musk sold nearly 22 million Tesla shares, for a total value of 3.6 billion dollars. The Wall Street Journal recounts it, quoting a document filed with the Sec, the American stock exchange authority.
With this week’s sale, Musk has sold Tesla shares worth more than 23 billion, since the peak reached in November 2021. Since then the company, according to the US newspaper, has lost more than 700 billion dollars in market value, even if it remains the largest automaker in the world by value.
It’s unclear what prompted Musk to make the latest sale. On Tuesday, however, the businessman posted a cautionary tweet: “At the risk of stating the obvious, be aware of debt in turbulent macroeconomic conditions, especially as the Fed continues to hike interest rates.”
Shares of the electric vehicle and solar panel maker have plunged lately, losing more than half in value since Musk first revealed in April that he was buying Twitter shares.
The decline in the value of shares caused Musk to lose his status as the richest person in the world, with his net worth dropping to $174 billion, according to Forbes. Musk was overtaken by French fashion and cosmetics mogul Bernard Arnault last week.
