The filing came to light on Monday, but the shares were bought on 14 March.
Musk is worth some US$270 billion right now and this means he could well look to acquire Twitter if he so wishes.
Twitter's stock rose by about 30% on Monday after news of Musk's buy was known; prior to that the stock has gone up as well, gaining about 50% since 14 March.
Musk tweeted recently about the lack of what he calls free speech on Twitter.
On 27 March, he wrote: "Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?"
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Two days before that he wrote: "Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?"
Man, I can’t wait for that cool billionaire to give us peasants some free speech. They’ll be so awesome, brah.
— Primo Radical (@PrimoRadical) April 5, 2022
Musk's tweets came shortly before two mainstream US newspapers backflipped on claims about a story published by the New York Post in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election.
The story, about a laptop owned by Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, was blocked from being posted on Twitter.
Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 26, 2022
What should be done? https://t.co/aPS9ycji37
Former president Donald Trump has been banned from Twitter after the events of 6 January 2021, when an unruly crowd tried to storm the US Capitol building in Washington DC.
The social media company cited "the risk of further incitement of violence" when making the announcement.
Trump last year launched Truth Social, a platform similar to Twitter, which he claims is devoted to free speech.
