Twitter Stock jumped 27% at market close on Monday after Elon Musk became the company’s biggest shareholder.
Wall Street seems to be embracing news of Musk’s investment, with shares of Twitter jumping more than 27% at market close on Monday. After buying a 9.2% stake in Twitter this week, the Tesla and SpaceX boss is now the platform’s largest shareholder. Musk’s stake is estimated to be worth some $2.9 billion at the close of trading on Friday.
This comes as Musk had been criticizing the platform for its content policies and even suggesting that he would create his own social network this past week. Although details are short on Musk’s exact plans for Twitter, he has been vocal about the platform failing to uphold its free speech policies.
On March 25, Musk tweeted: “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” More than 70% of some 2 million users on Twitter responded, “No.”
Musk has been critical of Twitter in the past, and of the SEC after he tweeted in 2018 about having secured funding to take Tesla private at $420 a share. He later settled by stepping down as chairman of the company and remaining its CEO. Last year, Parag Agrwal took over as Twitter’s CEO from founder Jack Dorsey.
