Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, Purchases Largest Stake in Twitter

By Yehudit Garmaise

Elon Musk, who is the CEO of Tesla and the richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, is now also Twitter’s biggest shareholder, Bloomberg reported.

He purchased on Friday a 9.2% stake of the company, worth $2.89 billion, a week after he hinted he would  shake up the social media industry. 

Musk, who is known as one of the biggest personalities on Twitter, has regularly run into trouble on the platform for his tweets. 

In fact, Musk is still seeking to free himself from a 2018 deal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that sought to control and censor his tweets about Tesla.

Last month, Musk, 50, polled his more than 80 million Twitter followers to ask them whether they thought the social media giant adheres to the principles of free speech.

“Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy,” Musk asked his followers on March 25. “Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?”

After more than 70% of Musk’s followers responded “no,” Musk, who said he was giving serious thought to starting his own social media platform, asked whether a new platform was needed.

“It looks like Elon has his eyes laser-set on Twitter,” said Dan Ives, a Wedbush analyst, who added that Musk’s stake could lead to a “more aggressive ownership role” in Twitter, although Musk has not specified what he intends to do with his large stake in the company.