Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has purchased a 9% stake in Twitter Inc., sending the mini-blogging social media’s stock to $49.34 per share in premarket trading, a 26% rise, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday (April 4).
Musk holds 73,486,938 shares of common stock held by the Elon Musk Revocable T 2003, according to the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.
The stake is worth $2.9 billion, based on Twitter’s closing price of $39.31 per share on Friday (April 1) and is on track to jump by a quarter when Wall Street opens Monday.
Last month, Musk, who has taken to Twitter to criticize the platform, said he is considering launching a social media platform, according to Reuters.
See also: Elon Musk Considers Creating Social Media Platform Focused on ‘Free Speech’
Musk has been critical of Twitter’s policies, arguing that the company doesn’t adhere to free speech principles.
He recently ran a Twitter poll asking users if they believe Twitter adheres to the principles of free speech, adding in another tweet that the poll’s consequences “will be important.” On the poll, 70% voted no.
Reuters wrote that if Musk does go ahead and make a new platform, he’d be part of a growing contingent of tech companies positioning themselves as “champions of free speech.”
The stake makes Musk the largest Twitter shareholder, exceeding founder Jack Dorsey’s 2.25% shares.
The Vanguard Group holds 8.79%, Morgan Stanley Investment Management 8.08% and BlackRock Institutional Trust Company 4.56%.
In February, Tesla was subpoenaed by the SEC over a settlement that required Musk’s tweets to be vetted if they contained material information.
Read more: SEC Probes Elon Musk’s Tesla Tweets as Possible Violations
The subpoena, issued Nov. 16, came around 10 days after Musk asked his Twitter followers if he should sell 10% of his stake in the company.
The action was disclosed in a Tesla securities filing.
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