Every new week brings surprises. This week’s surprise involved a famous entrepreneur, Elon Musk, a famous social media platform, Twitter, and the stock markets.

Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has purchased a 9.2% stake (73,486,938 shares) in Twitter (NYSE: TWTR), an SEC filing shows. It’s unclear when Musk purchased the stake and for what price. The stake was worth $2.9bn at the time of filing.

• The share purchase was disclosed less than two weeks after Musk criticized Twitter, polling people on the social media platform whether Twitter adhered to “free speech principles.” “Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy,” Musk tweeted. “What should be done?”

• In a tweet last month, Musk also said he was giving “serious thought” to building a new social media platform rivaling Twitter.

• Musk is one of Twitter’s most prominent users. He has 80 million followers on the platform and constantly tweets to his audience, a behavior not typical of high-profile CEOs.

Musk’s Twitter investment has drawn fanfare from other investors. Twitter shares surged 26% in pre-market trading following the disclosure.

At 9.2%, Musk is Twitter’s largest individual shareholder. He could use that status to push for changes at the social media giant, but it’s unclear if he’s aiming for that.

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