Elon Musk sells another $1bn worth of shares in Tesla to clear tax bill

Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla Inc., has sold another 934,090 shares in the electric vehicle manufacturer for $1.2 billion.

This is coming a week after Musk confirmed that he would pay over $11 billion in taxes this year.

He had also predicted that the tax rate would rise next year.

The billionaire has been offloading his Tesla stock after he polled Twitter users about selling 10 percent of his stake in November.

He has now sold more than 15 million Tesla shares.

Last month, TheCable had reported that he sold about $5 billion worth of Tesla’s shares — and nearly $1 billion again the same month. 

Musk’s fortune is heavily reliant on Tesla — and SpaceX valued at 100 billion after a funding round some months ago.

He will be required to pay this tax bill to receive compensation of more than $23 billion in the form of stock options that would otherwise expire in August 2022.

According to Wall Street Journal, Musk’s holdings in Tesla have increased from about 170 million shares to over 177 million shares for exercising his options this quarter.