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NEW YORK: Tesla Inc chief executive officer Elon Musk sold at least US$3.95 billion of the electric-vehicle maker’s shares just days after closing his buyout of Twitter Inc.

Musk unloaded 19.5 million shares, according to regulatory filings on Tuesday in New York, his first disposals since August. The filings didn’t indicate that the transactions were pre-planned.

Musk, the world’s richest person, said in August he was done offloading Tesla stock. He told a Twitter follower it was important to avoid an “emergency sale” of Tesla shares in case he was forced to close the acquisition of the social media network and struggle to bring in additional equity partners.

Still, some had speculated that the billionaire would sell more stock to shore up the deal. He’s unloaded about US$36 billion worth of shares in the past year – around half of that since he went public with his Twitter buyout plan, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.