New regulatory filings made public late on Wednesday show Tesla Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has sold roughly $5 billion in Tesla Inc. shares this week as the billionaire exercised stock options that he got as part of his remuneration package.

The documents released Thursday showed Musk sold this large amount of stock to help pay off taxes on options that he acquired over a decade ago.

The stock disposition came only days after the billionaire said he would make the unusual sale in reaction to a billionaire tax plan that was discussed in Washington, D.C. last month.

Musk's trust sold roughly 3.6 million shares in Tesla, which is valued at around $4 billion, in his first stock transaction since 2016, and he also sold another 934,000 shares for $1.1 billion after exercising options to buy nearly 2.2 million shares.

According to Forbes, the 4.5 million shares represent around 3% of his total interests in the electric vehicle company, which accounts for the majority of his estimated $281.6 billion fortune.

The documents don't say whether Musk's weekend Twitter poll influenced his decision to carry out any or all of the transactions, or whether he'll keep selling until he reaches the 10% mark.

Musk would need to sell nearly 17 million shares to get to that point, and considerably more if he included exercisable options in his total holdings, analysts said.

The filing also shows the options-related sales were put up in September through a trading strategy that permits company insiders to execute preplanned transactions. The accompanying taxes were paid by selling the option-related shares.

Nonetheless, Tesla's stock took a beating on Monday and Tuesday as a result of the viral Twitter poll, shaving $50 billion off Musk's net worth.

Tesla rallied 4.4% to $1,067.94 on Wednesday, bringing this week's losses to less than 12%. In post-market trading, the stock was up 2.8% when the first few trades were revealed.

Musk's wealth is mostly related to his shares in Tesla and SpaceX, thus the new share sales provide him with considerable cash reserves.

Musk still has over 20 million stock options that will expire in August of next year.

According to Mark Arnold, chief investment officer at Hyperion Asset Management in Brisbane, where Tesla has the top holding in its global fund, if Musk follows through on his 10% stock sale proposal, it would be a little negative in the short run.