Elon Musk has sold $6.9 billion in Tesla stock.
He needs the money in case Twitter Inc. forces him to take over the company against his will, the head of Tesla Inc. said in a tweet.
"In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal *and* some equity investors don't step in, it's important to avoid a fire sale of Tesla stock," Musk wrote Tuesday night after the sales in a series of mandatory notifications had been announced.
He reportedly sold about 7.92 million Tesla shares on August 5.
When asked by followers if he was done selling and would buy Tesla stock again if the $44 billion deal doesn't go through, Musk replied, "Yes."
Four months ago, the richest person in the world said he had no further plans to sell Tesla shares.
He previously sold $8.5 billion in Tesla stock as part of his original takeover bid for Twitter.
Last month, Musk said he was canceling the deal to buy Twitter because the company had made "misleading claims" about the number of active spam bots.
Twitter now wants to force him in court to implement the deal.
A trial in Delaware is scheduled to begin in October.