The latest sale takes Musk’s total to about 15.6 million shares, for approximately $16.4 billion. He’d need to dispose of about 17 million shares to offload 10 percent of his stake, assuming his pledge excludes exercisable options.
Tesla shares were down 1.3 percent to $1,074 in morning trading Wednesday.The shares have gained 54 percent this year.
It’s unclear whether the poll in November had any actual bearing on Musk’s plans. He said months earlier that he was likely to exercise a big block of stock options toward the end of the year, and he set up a trading plan to sell shares before his tweet.
Musk has a net worth of $278.9 billion, up almost 80 percent this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
