Elon Musk sells Tesla shares worth US$3.95bil days after Twitter takeover

FILE PHOTO: Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks about new Autopilot features during a Tesla event in Palo Alto, California October 14, 2015. REUTERS/Beck Diefenbach

TESLA Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has sold 19.5 million shares of the electric vehicle maker worth $3.95 billion on Tuesday, according to U.S. securities filings, days after he completed the $44 billion takeover of Twitter Inc.

Musk, the world's richest man, had about $20 billion in cash after selling a part of his stake in Tesla and would have required to raise an additional $2 billion to $3 billion to finance the Twitter deal, according to a Reuters calculation.