Elon Musk tweet about 'too high' share price sees Tesla plummet $14bn in value

Founder sees $3bn knocked off his own stake following outburst

Tesla has seen $14bn (£11.2bn) wiped off its value after its founder and chief executive Elon Musk claimed the company’s share price was too high.

“Tesla stock price too high imo,” Musk said on Friday, kicking off a bizarre series of tweets in which he claimed he would sell "almost all" of his physical possessions and that his girlfriend, pop star Grimes, was angry with him.

Despite the electric car company surging in value this year – coming close to $100bn (£78bn) – Musk’s tweet saw its share price plummet, also knocking $3bn (£2.4bn) off his own stake.

Asked by the Wall Street Journal whether his tweet was a joke and if it had been vetted by lawyers, Musk responded, “No”.

It follows a 2018 controversy in which Musk claimed on Twitter he had secured enough funding to potential take Tesla private, again leading to wild swings in the stock market.

A subsequent fraud case was settled by Musk, who agreed to a $20m (£16m) fine and to have tweets relating to Tesla vetted by a lawyer.

Launching Friday’s rant, Musk tweeted, “I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house", before adding, “Tesla stock price is too high imo”.

He then wrote, “Now give people back their FREEDOM,” and posted the final lines of the US national anthem.

His “freedom” comments came in the wake of widely criticised previous tweets about the coronavirus lockdown, which he called “fascistic”.

"Rage, rage against the dying of the light of consciousness," Musk later tweeted, concluding: "My gf [Grimes] is mad at me."

The outburst came as Nasa announced that one of Musk's other companies, SpaceX, was one of three firms in the running to make the lunar lander for humanity's return to the moon's surface.

SpaceX already has a number of key contracts with the US government, including one that will see it send Nasa astronauts to the International Space Station in a matter of weeks.