According to an interview released on Tuesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated he has sold “enough stock” to meet his goal of selling 10% of his shares in the world’s most valuable car firm.
Following his personal departure to Texas last year, the billionaire lambasted California for “over-taxation.”
Tesla shares, which had been hovering near record highs, dropped roughly a quarter of their value after Musk indicated on November 6 that if Twitter users agreed, he would sell 10% of his ownership.
Musk sold another 583,611 shares on Tuesday, bringing his total number of shares sold to 13.5 million, or nearly 80% of what he expected to sell.
In an interview with the satirical website Babylon Bee, he remarked, “I sold enough shares to get to roughly 10% plus the option exercise stuff and I tried to be quite specific here.”
When questioned if he sold the shares because of the Twitter poll, he stated that “no matter what,” he needed to exercise stock options that expire next year. He also mentioned that he sold some “incremental stock” to reach close to 10%.
8.06 million of the 13.5 million shares sold were sold to cover taxes connected to his option exercise.
Musk announced on Twitter on Sunday that he will pay more than $11 billion in taxes this year (approximately Rs. 83,060 crores).
“California used to be the land of opportunity, but now it’s more so the land of sort of overregulation, overlitigation, and over-taxation,” he added, adding that getting things done in California is becoming “increasingly difficult.”
