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.
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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.
