Elon Musk buys 9.2 percent stake in Twitter

Elon Musk has purchased a significant stake in Twitter.

According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the billionaire purchased 9.2 percent of the company for nearly $3 billion.

Twitter’s stock rose more than 25% in premarket trading as a result of the announcement.

With over 80 million followers, Mr. Musk is one of Twitter’s most popular users. He is also a prolific user, using his account to share memes as well as provide updates on his life and businesses.

Those tweets, however, have caused Mr. Musk problems in the past. For example, in 2018, he tweeted that Tesla would go private, kicking off a period in which he was investigated by the SEC and lost his position as chairman of the company.

Mr. Musk has used his Twitter account in recent weeks to post about Twitter and the rules that govern it.

On March 24, he tweeted that he was “worried about de facto bias in ‘the Twitter algorithm’ having a significant impact on public discourse,” and he shared a poll asking his followers to vote on whether that algorithm should be open source.

A day later, he tweeted that “free speech is essential to a functioning democracy,” and asked his followers if they thought Twitter “rigorously adheres to this principle.” After 70.4 percent of respondents said no, he asked his followers “what should be done?”

Mr. Musk purchased his Twitter shares prior to those posts, according to SEC filings, though the purchase was not disclosed until today.