Elon Musk has sold more than $8.5 billion in Tesla stock since launching Twitter bid

Elon Musk disclosed an additional $4.5 billion worth of Tesla stock sales in new regulatory filings Friday, bringing the total he’s disposed of in the wake of his deal to buy Twitter to more than $8.5 billion.

Tesla’s chief executive offloaded more than 5 million shares on Thursday, according to the new filings. Those followed disclosures late Thursday of sales totaling 4.4 million shares the two prior days.

Musk has now sold about $25 billion worth of stock in the electric-car maker during the last six months.

The world’s wealthiest man reached an agreement on Monday to acquire Twitter for $44 billion using a financing plan that has alarmed some Tesla investors.

In addition to pledging tens of billions of dollars’ worth of his Tesla shares to support margin loans, Musk has vowed to line up some $21 billion worth of equity. It’s been unclear how much of that would come from selling a portion of his Tesla stake.

The latest disclosures come after Musk tweeted Thursday that he has “no further Tesla sales planned after today.” He still has time to disclose additional sales if more took place on Thursday.

The Twitter deal is poised to be one of the biggest leveraged buyouts in history, with Musk arranging $25.5 billion of debt and margin-loan financing from lenders including Morgan Stanley. If it were to fall apart, the party pulling out of the agreement would be required to pay a termination fee of $1 billion under certain circumstances.

Musk’s pursuit of Twitter has once again highlighted the extent to which Tesla’s valuation hinges on how involved and invested its CEO is in the business. He has headed the company since 2008 and long been its biggest shareholder.

Tesla’s stock slumped late last year as Musk offloaded more than $16 billion worth of shares, his first sales in more than five years. The sell-off started in November after Musk polled Twitter users on whether he should trim his stake.

With a $252.2-billion fortune, Musk is the world’s richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The recent slump in Tesla shares has shaved $18 billion off his net worth this year, even as the carmaker has reported better-than-expected earnings and opened new plants in Germany and Texas.