---
title: "Elon Musk’s Tesla Share Sales Approach the $40 Billion Mark"
description: "Elon Musk sold another $3.58 billion worth of Tesla Inc. shares, bringing the total amount he’s offloaded since late last year to almost $40 billion."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "Business Maverick"
author: "Bloomberg"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/bloomberg/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-12-15-elon-musks-tesla-share-sales-approach-the-40-billion-mark/"
published: "2022-12-15T17:50:16"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 423
---

# Elon Musk’s Tesla Share Sales Approach the $40 Billion Mark

> Elon Musk sold another $3.58 billion worth of Tesla Inc. shares, bringing the total amount he’s offloaded since late last year to almost $40 billion.

By Bloomberg · Published 15 December 2022, 19:50 SAST

## Content

The latest disposal of about [22 million shares](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000089924322038522/xslF345X03/doc4.xml) this week coincided with Musk falling from the top spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a position he’d occupied since September of last year. Tesla’s market value also slumped below the [half-trillion-dollar](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-14/tesla-closes-below-500-billion-valuation-first-time-in-2-years) mark for the first time since November 2020.

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Musk’s persistent selling after [repeated assurances](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-09/musk-sells-3-95-billion-of-tesla-stock-after-twitter-takeover) that he was done unloading Tesla stock reflects mounting pressure on the finances of Twitter Inc. His [erratic and impulsive](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-12-14/elon-musk-twitter-ownership-full-of-firings-ad-cuts-chaos) approach to running the social-media company has alienated advertisers, and efforts to bring in more revenue from subscription fees [backfired](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-09/twitter-quickly-scraps-official-badges-for-high-profile-users) when [impostor accounts](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-11/twitter-pauses-subscriptions-after-fake-accounts-proliferate) exploited a poorly executed rollout of verification badges.

The chaos at Twitter has been an [overhang](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-03/tesla-s-twitter-overhang-has-only-just-begun) on Tesla, which is facing its own set of challenges. The electric-car maker has [cut prices and production](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-14/elon-musk-tesla-prediction-for-epic-end-of-year-misses-the-mark) this quarter in China and taken the rare step of offering incentives in the US. Musk has said the company is struggling to cope with the effects that China’s slumping property market, Europe’s energy crisis and the Federal Reserve’s interest rate increases are having on demand.

Tesla shares rallied as much as 2% as of 9:45 a.m. Thursday in New York. The stock has plunged 55% this year.

Musk tried for months to get out of the Twitter deal but ultimately failed. To help finance the purchase, he offloaded more than $15 billion of Tesla shares before closing the transaction — about $8.5 billion in April, then $6.9 billion in August. In November, he sold another [$3.95 billion](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-09/musk-sells-3-95-billion-of-tesla-stock-after-twitter-takeover) of his holdings.

> Forgot to say one thing at Tesla annual shareholders meeting: just as my money was the first in, it will be the last out.
>
> — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) [June 5, 2013](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/342107352041922560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

Musk layered a significant amount of high-interest debt on Twitter’s balance sheet as part of his buyout. The company’s debt load swelled to about $13 billion — up from $1.7 billion pre-deal — and it’s now facing annual interest payments approaching [$1.2 billion](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-08/musk-bankers-mull-tesla-margin-loans-to-cut-risky-twitter-debt). Its borrowing could get even more expensive because the interest rates on about half of that debt aren’t locked in and will rise with the market.

“At risk of stating obvious, beware of debt in turbulent macroeconomic conditions, especially when Fed keeps raising rates,” Musk [tweeted](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1602806063606075392) this week.

Musk’s recent sales shrink his stake in the company to roughly 13%, according to Bloomberg data. As of Wednesday’s close, he was worth $160.9 billion, ranking No. 2 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index after France’s Bernard Arnault. His fortune has dropped by $109.4 billion this year.