Elon Musk said he may resign as the CEO to become a fulltime influencer; Is he joking around?
Is Elon Musk now admitting that he is wealthy enough to retire? After selling another $963 million of Tesla stock, the world’s richest person and Tesla CEO Elon Musk reportedly took a jab at proponents of taxing the wealthy, saying that he is considering quitting his employment to become a full-time influencer. “Thinking of quitting my employment & becoming a full-time influencer wdyt,” Musk wrote in the tweet, without going into further detail.
Elon Musk’s erratic tweet-to-action history makes it difficult to tell if he’s joking or serious. However, this ‘quitting employment to become an influencer’ thing does not appear to be a reality anytime soon, as the billionaire stated on a conference call in January that he expects to be the CEO of Tesla for “many years.”
Several important personalities, notably US-independent senator Bernie Sanders, have recently supported taxing billionaires’ stocks and other tradable assets, arguing that the wealthy must pay their “fair share” of taxes, using Elon Musk’s personal wealth as an example.
Tesla shares worth $963.2 million are sold by Musk.
Elon Musk’s post came after the electric vehicle manufacturer’s CEO sold another 934,091 shares worth $963.2 million on Thursday. According to US securities filings, he also exercised stock options to purchase 2.17 million Tesla shares. Elon Musk has been selling Tesla stock in order to pay taxes on stock option profits. To pay the taxes, he purchased approximately 13 million shares by executing his options and sold about 11 million of his existing shares.
Musk had already sold 4.8 million shares that were not part of option grants. In early November, he questioned his Twitter followers if he should sell stock and pay taxes on unrealized capital gains. Yes, his supporters voted. Musk has sold more than 10 million shares worth more than $11 billion as a result. Since November 8, he has sold a total of 11.03 million shares and gained 12.87 million shares via executing options.
Transactions in Musk’s stock since November 8
8 November: 2.2 million shares purchased, 934,091 shares sold, gross proceeds $1.10 billion
9 November: 3.1 million shares were purchased, for a gross profit of $3.35 billion.
500,000 shares were purchased on November 10th, with gross proceeds of $527.3 million.
639,737 shares were purchased on November 11th, for a total of $687.3 million in gross revenues.
12 November: 1.2 million shares purchased, $1.24 billion in gross revenues
15 November: 2.1 million shares purchased, 934,091 shares sold, $930.7 million in gross proceeds
16 November: 2.1 million shares purchased, 934,091 shares sold, $973.4 million in gross proceeds
23 November: 2.15 million shares purchased, 934,091 shares sold, $1.05 billion in gross profits
2 December: 2.1 million shares purchased, 934,091 shares sold, $1.01 billion in gross proceeds
9 December: 2.17 million shares purchased, 934,091 shares sold, gross proceeds $963.2 million
Elon Musk announced on November 6 that if Twitter users agreed, he would sell 10% of his stake. As of June 30, he owned nearly 244 million shares in Tesla through his trust and stock options, giving him a 23 percent interest in the company. 170 million shares held by his trust were included in his share. Musk did not specify whether he intended to sell the 10% of his shares he indirectly controlled through the trust or his stock options in the tweet.
Elon Musk has a net worth of $1 billion.
Musk’s net worth fell $16 billion to $266 billion on Friday as Tesla shares fell 6.10 percent on Nasdaq to $1,003. In terms of net worth, he is currently $66 billion ahead of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
