Musk ups the Twitter stakes

Elon Musk has become Twitter’s largest single shareholder. The only question remaining is what he wants to do with it. 

Putting his money where his mouth is 

Elon Musk has been all too forthright with his opinions on Twitter. Only a few days ago, it seemed for all the world he might be about to launch his own platform. But maybe he took a closer look at Truth Social and decided there were already too many fingers grabbing at the free speech pie.  

So in a digital Trojan Horse move, he’s decided that his ambitions are better served from inside an established platform. Musk has taken a 9.2% stake in Twitter, and his $3 billion investment led to a sharp spike in Twitter’s share price. We all need a pet project, and Musk seems to be gathering quite a few.  

Making moves 

So what is Musk’s grand plan here? The investment has been structured as a ‘passive’ one. In other words, he won’t be looking to exert influence over Twitter’s future direction just yet. But as is often the case, sometimes investors start off slowly before taking larger and larger stakes in a company over time.  

And who knows? Maybe soon he’ll be looking for a seat on the board, or even stage a full takeover one day. Musk’s Twitter bug bear has long been the firm’s content rules, so maybe he’ll push hard to get those amended. Digital democracy sponsored by Tesla? Don’t rule it out just yet.