"I sold a lot of Tesla stock to close this deal. I did not want to sell the Tesla stock," Musk told the BBC.
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Elon Musk said he sold Tesla stock only because it was "desperately needed" to complete his Twitter deal - and claimed that he doesn't know his net worth, in an impromptu interview with the BBC late Tuesday night.
"I sold a lot of Tesla stock to close this deal. I did not want to sell the Tesla stock," Musk told BBC correspondent James Clayton at Twitter's headquarters.
"People couldn't parse the difference between 'I'm selling Tesla stock because I've lost faith in Tesla,' which I haven't, or that it's desperately needed for Twitter," he said.
Musk sold about $23 billion worth of Tesla stock last year, largely to finance his $44 billion Twitter purchase.
He said that there are only "brief windows" where he can sell his Tesla stock, adding that such sales are often wrongly perceived as him lacking confidence in his electric-vehicle company.
"The Tesla stock sales caused the Tesla stock to plummet, which is not good," he said.
Tesla shares sank 65% in 2022, but have rallied 52% to $187 this year. They still trade well below their peak price of over $400 in November 2021.
The stock represents a significant chunk of Musk's estimated $181 billion fortune as of Wednesday.
When he was directly asked how much he is worth, the Tesla, Twitter, and SpaceX CEO replied: "I don't know."
