And yet today that's exactly what he said he's going to do (though he hasn't disclosed the price of the private interest he's selling, only a rough estimate of the total proceeds). Musk disagrees with your math though; he expects to buy 1/3 of the shares, not 12%. But I'm sure he hopes it will be less. And of course he's not doing it all himself. He'll have shares left, he's just going to have to take a haircut.