Tech mogul Elon Musk has purchased approximately 73.5 million shares of microblogging platform Twitter. According to a regulatory filing Monday, it translates into a 9.2 per cent stake in the company.

With this, Musk becomes the platform’s biggest shareholder, according to a Bloomberg report.

The acquisition comes a week after Musk hinted at shaking up the social media industry. After the regulatory filing was released on Monday detailing Musk buying the stake, Twitter shares surged about 26 per cent in premarket trading.

Musk’s stake in Twitter is worth about USD 2.89 billion, according to Friday’s market closing.

Notably, Musk has been raising questions about the ability to communicate freely on Twitter, tweeting last month about free speech and the social media platform. “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?” he tweeted.

In a separate tweet, Musk said that he was “giving serious thought” to creating a new social media platform. Also last month, Musk asked a federal judge to nullify a subpoena from securities regulators and throw out a 2018 court agreement in which Musk had to have someone pre-approve his posts on Twitter.

READ MORE: ‘Giving serious thought…’: Elon Musk on building new social media platform

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