Here's Who Owns Tesla Now That Elon Musk Is Selling Out

Entrepreneurs sell stock eventually, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is no different. But he’s still firmly in control of the company he founded.

Even after selling Tesla (TSLA) stock seven times this year including his most recent sale of 19.5 million shares, Musk still owns 445.6 million shares, says S&P Global Market Intelligence. That gives him a 14.1% ownership position in the electric-vehicle company he founded in 2003. That keeps him the largest single owner of the stock.

That also means Musk is still in more financial control of his company than many other tycoons are of theirs. Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos owns just 9.8% of the company and Mark Zuckerberg still holds 13% of Meta, a costly position this year.

Some investors, though, still lament Musk’s selling. “Musk, who multiple times over the past year has said he is ‘done selling Tesla stock,’ yet again loses more credibility with investors and his loyalists in a boy who cried wolf moment,” said Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush.

So who would be the biggest owner of Tesla next?

Biggest Tesla Owners Now

Musk might be easing up his position in Tesla, but giant ETF and mutual fund investors are loading up.

The second-largest holder of Tesla is Vanguard Group. The investment company giant, which is the largest owner of most stocks, owns 204.7 million shares of Tesla for a 6.5% stake in the company. Vanguard runs two of the five ETFs that own the most Tesla shares. Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) owns 19.3 million shares and Vanguard Total Stock Market (VTI) owns 17.6 million shares.

The investment manager also runs the ETF with the fourth largest percentage exposure to Tesla. Vanguard Consumer Discretionary ETF (VCR) puts nearly 16% of its portfolio in the single stock. To satisfy the needs of these ETFs, Vanguard has been aggressively buying. It now owns nearly 58% more Tesla stock than it did two years ago.

And next up is BlackRock, another giant in the ETF industry. The company owns 166 million shares of Tesla, accounting for 5.3% of the company’s shares outstanding. BlackRock’s iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) is the third-largest holder of Tesla stock after SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ).

And like Vanguard, BlackRock is aggressively adding Tesla shares. Its number of shares held is up nearly 46% in two years’ time.

Changing Of The Guard At Tesla

Musk’s selling, though, is a normal part of a company’s maturing process.

Big institutions now own more than 42% of Tesla’s stock. Most of those owners are traditional investment managers. Individuals like Musk only own 15.6%, a vast majority which is Musk himself. The only other large individual investor is Oracle (ORCL) founder Larry Ellison. Public investors like state pensions own the balance of the shares, totaling 41% of the company.

And activists? They’re hardly involved in Tesla. D. E. Shaw only owns 0.1% of the stock. And that’s why, while Musk is selling, he’s still in control.

Who Owns Tesla Stock

Holder	Common shares held (millions)	% of CSO (common stock outstanding)
Elon Musk	445.6	14.1%
Vanguard Group	204.7	6.5
BlackRock	166.1	5.3
Capital Research and Management	97.0	3.1
State Street Global Advisors	95.4	3.0
Natixis, Investment Banking and Corporate Banking Investments	45.8	1.5
Lawrence Ellison	45.0	1.4
Geode Capital Management	44.3	1.4
T. Rowe Price Group	42.7	1.4
Fidelity Investments	32.2	1.0