Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc., has acquired a 9.2 percent interest in Twitter Inc., according to a regulatory filing on Monday, sending the microblogging site’s stock up 24 percent in premarket trading as of 7 a.m. EDT.
Late in March, the silicon valley billionaire stated that he was “seriously considering” developing a new social networking platform.
Musk was replying to a Twitter user’s question about whether he would consider developing a social media platform based on an open source algorithm that prioritised free expression and had a low tolerance for propaganda.
Musk owns 73.5 million Twitter shares, which values his passive investment in the firm at up to $2.9 billion as of Friday’s close. The Elon Musk Revocable Trust owns the shares.
Musk, a frequent Twitter user, has amassed over 80 million followers since joining the site in 2009 and has used the platform to make various announcements, including hyping a Tesla takeover that landed him in regulatory hot water.
Musk, on the other hand, has recently been critical of the social media platform and its practises, claiming that the firm is destroying democracy by violating free speech principles.
Meanwhile, Musk and Twitter’s millionaire co-founder, Jack Dorsey, have found common cause in criticising the so-called Web3, a nebulous phrase for a decentralised utopian version of the internet. Musk is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX, as well as the founder and CEO of Neuralink, a brain-chip startup, and The Boring Company, an infrastructure company.