Tesla CEO Elon Musk has met his goal of selling 10 percent of his stake in the electronic car company, he said in an interview Tuesday.
The outspoken founder of Tesla and SpaceX, who declared on Sunday that he would pay $11 billion in taxes this year, has been selling his shares over the past two months after conducting a Twitter poll.
“I sold enough stock to get to around 10% plus the option-exercise stuff, and I tried to be extremely literal here,” Musk said in an interview with satirical website Babylon Bee.
The billionaire also took aim at California in the interview, calling it the state of “overtaxation” and deriding Gov. Gavin Newsom as the “U-Haul salesman of the year” because so many people have left the state, he claimed.
This month Tesla moved its headquarters to Austin, Tex. from Palo Alto, Calif., in part, because Tesla’s factories in California were forced to close during the pandemic after lockdown orders were issued by Newsom.
In an interview on December 21, 2021, Tesla founder said that he has met his goal of selling 10 percent of his Tesla stake. YouTube / The Babylon Bee
According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Musk is worth $245 billion, which increased by $89 billion this year alone. GoogleOn Tuesday, the world’s richest man sold 584,000 Tesla shares, according to a government filing, bringing the total number of his selling spree to 13.5 million over the past couple of months. He’s made more than $14 billion in those sales, according to MarketWatch.
The huge haul will likely only ramp up the spat between Musk and Democratic members of Congress – namely Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) – who accused tech moguls of not paying their fair share of taxes and accused Musk of “freeloading on everyone else” in a tweet.
Musk fired back calling Warren an “angry mom” and “Senator Karen.”
Elon Musk has reportedly sold 584,000 Tesla shares, according to a government filing. JOHN THYS/AFP via Getty ImagesAccording to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Musk is worth $245 billion, which increased by $89 billion this year alone.
The vast majority of his wealth comes from his stock options, some of which are set to expire in August 2022, which would have prompted him to sell some of his shares in Tesla anyway, experts say.






