Elon Musk's Windfall From Tesla Stock Sales Dwarfs Twitter's Loss

Elon Musk's attempt to cancel his $44 billion purchase of Twitter Inc may leave the world's wealthiest person in a better financial position than before he announced the deal, with billions of dollars in cash from selling Tesla shares now sitting in the bank.

According to legal experts, after Musk tore up his April 25 agreement to buy the social media platform, with Twitter promising to force him to make good, the two sides face a potentially drawn-out legal battle that could still cost Musk billions of dollars.

Whatever the outcome, Elon Musk appears to be sitting on around $8.5 billion in cash raised from selling Tesla shares late in April to finance the Twitter acquisition.

"He is almost certainly in a better cash position now than he was a year ago because he has sold so much Tesla stock, particularly at a fairly high price. "However, depending on what the ultimate outcome of the litigation around this is, he could end up being in a much worse situation," said Guidehouse Insights analyst Sam Abuelsamid.