Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk sold a portion of his shares in the company to help fund his acquisition of social media platform Twitter, now called X, in 2022.
Years later, Musk said he wishes he owned more Tesla shares. Here's a look at how much Tesla stock Musk owns today.
What Happened: Musk recently said he would like to have increased control of Tesla if he is to advance artificial intelligence (AI) products within the company.
The comments come as some have cautioned the use of Grok AI chatbots from Musk's xAI company could be a conflict of interest for Tesla shareholders.
"I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control. Enough to be influential, but not so much that I can't be overturned," Musk said on X.
Musk also said he was in favor of a dual-class voting structure.
The comments also come as discussions around Musk's compensation at Tesla continue to circulate by shareholders.
Musk is the largest shareholder of Tesla stock, as reported by the company in a 2023 filing.
The Tesla CEO owns 411,062,076 Tesla shares as of May 2023. Based on 3,169,314,178 outstanding of Tesla stock, Musk owns 12.97% of shares.
The filing said Musk could own 20.6% of the company based on shares owned and the exercising of 303,960,630 shares that are unlocked from options.
Musk is the richest person in the world, valued at $206 billion. A large portion of Musk’s wealth is related to his stake in Tesla.
Related Link: If You Invested $1,000 In Twitter When Musk Disclosed A Stake, Here’s How Much You Made
Why It's Important: Musk sold Tesla shares several times in 2021 and 2022 to help fund the X acquisition. Musk had previously said he didn't plan on selling more shares of Tesla, but after selling more clarified the need to help with the deal.
"In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close *and* some equity partners don't come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock," Musk previously tweeted.
Leading technology analyst Daniel Ives of Wedbush said the comments from Musk created a firestorm.
"It's no secret and a key to our bullish thesis that all AI initiatives be kept within Tesla from Dojo to Optimus to FSD to various robotaxis and other robotic developments," Ives said.
The analyst said that if Musk created next-generation artificial intelligence projects outside Tesla, it "would clearly be a big negative for the Tesla story."
“Musk is Tesla and Tesla is Musk and AI is a key to the future of Tesla.”
Read Next: Here’s How Many Vehicles Tesla Has Delivered, Produced In Each Quarter Since 2019
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