Elon Musk acquires $3bn worth of shares in Twitter, now the company’s largest shareholder

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk has bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter, according to a US securities filing, which makes him the company’s largest shareholder.

The Tesla founder and tech guru bought 73,486,938 Twitter shares on 14 March, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which is worth $2.89bn (£2.20bn), and is more than four times the 2.25% holding of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

The news sent Twitter shares soaring about 25% in pre-market trading on Monday, April 4.

Musk, a regular Twitter user with more than 80 million followers, recently he said he is giving “serious thought” to building a new social media platform, after asking his followers whether they thought the social media platform encouraged free speech.

“Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?”

He then asked: “Is a new platform needed?”