Musk, Dorsey Add Nearly $1 Billion To Fortunes As Twitter Stock Surges 27%

Elon Musk, SpaceX’s Chief Engineer speaks before the Crew Dragon cleanroom at SpaceX Headquarters. … [+]Hawthorne in California, October 10, 2019.

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Investors on Monday cheered Elon Musk’s reveal that he has become Twitter’s largest shareholder, sending the stock up 27.1% and almost a billion dollars to Musk’s net worth.

A new SEC filing shows that Musk bought a 9.2% interest in Twitter. That’s roughly 73.5 million shares. Today’s investment amounts to $3.7 billion, an increase of $2.9 billion from the last trading day. The bulk of Musk’s fortune is in Tesla shares, and with that stock rapidly appreciating in value over the last two years, Musk is now the world’s richest person, worth over $300 billion.

Musk has suggested on Twitter that he’d like to see some changes made to Twitter, though it’s unclear exactly what he may advocated for and how he’ll use his large shareholding to cajole for change. That said, it is clear he’s unhappy with the company’s direction, criticizing it in recent posts for its moderation policies, which conservatives believe limit free speech.

Musk’s complaints amount to something of an indictment of Jack Dorsey’s time in the CEO role, a position he turned over to Parag Agrawal in November. Neverteless, Musk’s appearance on the scene as an investor raised Dorsey’s personal fortune on Monday, too. Musk revealed his stake, which is worth almost $200m more than the 2.25% he still owns in the company. Ev Williams was another billionaire cofounder of Twitter. His fortune grew by $90 million.