(Corrects Musk’s stock sales time period to “since the end of last year” instead of “the end of the year”)
Dec 22- Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, said on Thursday that he will not sell any more shares in the electric carmaker for two years.
In an audio chat on Twitter Spaces, Musk said he expects the economy to hit a “severe recession” in 2023 and that consumer demand will be weaker.
Tesla shares rose 3% to $129.23 in after-hours trading on Thursday, after an 11% drop in the regular session.
Musk has previously promised that he will not sell Tesla shares, only to continue transferring them. Last week, Musk disclosed a $3.6 billion stock sale, bringing the total transactions to nearly $40 billion since the end of last year and frustrating investors as the company’s shares are in the doldrums. minimum of more than two years.
“I needed to sell some shares to make sure there is dry powder..to anticipate the worst possible scenario,” said the billionaire.
He added that Tesla’s board is open to share buybacks, but that it will depend on the magnitude of a recession.
Musk said that Tesla is close to choosing the location of its new “Gigafactory“. Tesla could announce the construction of a “Gigafactory” in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon as early as Friday, with an initial investment of between $800 million and $1 billion, local newspaper Reforma reported on Monday.
Asked if he would hire someone like venture capitalist David Sacks to run Twitter so he could focus on Tesla, Musk dodged the question, saying Twitter was a relatively straightforward business.
“(Twitter) is maybe 10% of the complexity of Tesla,” Musk said.
Musk has increasingly used Twitter’s live audio platform to weigh in on his product and strategic decisions at the social media company that went private in October in a $44 billion deal.
Some of his appearances have been controversial, such as an exchange with a former Twitter engineer who questioned his apparent plan to rewrite much of the company’s source code.