Suddenly, Twitter’s biggest stakeholder is Tesla’s Elon Musk

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN and TOM KRISHER
AP Business Writers

Tesla CEO Elon Musk owns a 9% stake in Twitter and is now the social media platform’s largest shareholder. The ultimate aim of Musk’s 73.5 million share purchase worth $3 billion is not clear, yet in late March Musk, who has 80 million Twitter followers, questioned free speech on Twitter and whether the platform is undermining democracy. The regulatory filing Monday doesn’t make clear when Musk bought the stock, but says the filing was triggered by an event on March 14. Musk has also raised the possibility on Twitter of starting a rival social media network.