Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has sold around $8.5 billion (£6.8 billion) in shares in the electric carmaker, only days after agreeing to acquire Twitter.

The transaction has fueled rumors that it may help him fund his $44 billion acquisition of the social networking company.

Mr Musk’s buyout bid was accepted by Twitter’s board of directors on Monday.

Tesla’s stock plummeted earlier this week on suspicion that Elon Musk may sell a portion of his share in the company to fund the deal.

He said in a tweet on Thursday evening that he has no intentions to sell any more of his Tesla stock.

Mr Musk sold a total of 9.6 million Tesla shares this week, according to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

It was his first Tesla stock transaction since offloading $16.4 billion in equity in November and December of last year.

That happened after he asked his roughly 89 million Twitter followers if they thought he should sell 10% of his interest in Tesla.

Since Mr Musk announced earlier this month that he had purchased a 9.2 percent interest in Twitter, Tesla’s stock has dropped by roughly 20%.

After the social media firm’s board accepted his buyout bid on Tuesday, the carmaker’s stock market value plummeted by more than $125 billion.

Mr Musk stated that he would contribute $21 billion of his personal assets to help finance the $44 billion transaction.

Investors anticipated him to sell Tesla stock to help fund the acquisition.

Mr Musk is the world’s richest individual, with a net worth of about $250 billion, thanks mostly to his Tesla shareholding.

He also owns more than 40% of the rocket business SpaceX, which is valued at more than $100 billion.