Elon Musk sells almost $4bn worth of Tesla shares

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has sold almost $4bn (£3.2bn) worth of shares in the electric car maker, US regulatory filings showed on Thursday.

Mr Musk tweeted that he has no plans to sell more shares in the company.

Tesla's shares fell sharply earlier this week over concerns that he will sell part of his stake in the firm to help pay for his takeover of Twitter.

On Monday, the social media platform's board unanimously accepted a $44bn offer from the world's richest person.

Filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission showed that Mr Musk sold a total of 4.4 million Tesla shares on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Neither the regulator or Mr Musk gave a reason for the sale, although it has led to speculation that it was likely to help finance his planned buyout of Twitter.

He also tweeted: "No further TSLA sales planned after today". TSLA is the stock quote of Tesla, which is listed on the Nasdaq index in New York.

Tesla shares were 2.6% lower in after-hours trade.

It was his first sale of Tesla shares since he offloaded $16.4bn worth of stock in November and December last year.

That came after he asked his more than 80m Twitter followers whether he should sell 10% of his stake in the electric car maker.

Tesla's shares have fallen by around 20% since Mr Musk revealed earlier this month that he had bought a 9.2% stake in Twitter.

On Tuesday alone, more than $125bn was wiped off the car maker's stock market value after the social media firm's board accepted his takeover offer.

Mr Musk said he would commit $21bn of his assets to help finance the $44bn deal.

Investors were concerned that he may have to sell Tesla shares to help fund the takeover.

Mr Musk is the world's richest person, with an estimated net worth of almost $250bn, mostly due to his Tesla stake.

He also has a more than 40% stake in the rocket company SpaceX, which is estimated to be worth $100bn.