Musk takes a $3B bite out of Twitter; Tesla mogul has 9.2% share of the social network

He used the social networking site to ask people if they would make major business decisions. He had his hand slapped by regulators over how he used the social platform to potentially manipulate the markets. He wants to build a social platform of his own, since owning a digital publication seems to be the mogul's current version of having your own super.

Musk has been saying for a long time that he is putting some of his money where he has said before. According to a note published today, the founder of the two companies has taken a 9.2% share of the company, which works out to around $2.9 billion.

The confirmation of the share purchase sent the stock soaring and it is currently 23% above its Friday closing price.

The share event was actually on March 14 according to the filing. He purchased 73,486,938 shares of common stock on that day.

The date is notable because it was 14 days before Musk claimed he was giving serious thought to starting his own social network. It seems he was teasing the real news here, his taking a stake in the micro-messaging service to his base. Always a troll.

Since starting a social network from scratch is a long play, and has absolutely no guarantee to succeed, Musk's version of building may be starting now, in the form of building a stake in an already-established company.

Those who love Musk have taken advantage of the chance to send a message to him on the social networking site in hopes of getting a reply. His critics have decried how he uses the platform to manipulate situations. Musk comes off as libertarian in his approach, but is hard to pin down. That position is underscored by this new interest that he has taken in being a social media entrepreneur with a focus on free speech.

These shares will make Musk the largest shareholder. It's not clear what that might mean for the world of reasonable people who aren't fans of Musk. We reached out to the company to confirm that and will update when we learn more.

Elon gives $2.9B gift to Twitter, its employees, and himself. What’s next?