Google co-founder Sergey Brin could turn a $100 million profit by selling Tesla stock after he reportedly decided to pull his investments from Elon Musk’s firm over an alleged affair between Musk and his wife, Nicole Shanahan.
Musk on Sunday denied a Wall Street Journal report which claimed that his friendship with Brin was ruptured after he and Shanahan had a brief fling while she was separated from Brin late last year.
According to the Journal, Brin was so incensed by the affair that it spurred him to file for divorce from Shanahan.
Brin also reportedly told his financial investors to divest all of his holdings in Musk-led entities, including electric car maker Tesla.
According to Business Insider, Brin was an early investor in Tesla. In 2006, he helped the company raise $40 million, though it is unclear how much he put in at the time.
Two years later, Brin invested another $500,000 as part of another $40 million fundraising round.
That sum of money was “enough to keep the lights on just a little while longer,” according to Hamish McKenzie, author of “Insane Mode: How Elon Musk’s Tesla Sparked an Electric Revolution.”
Brin’s name doesn’t appear in Tesla’s SEC filings, which indicates that his stake in the company is no bigger than 5%.
It is unclear whether he sold his stake in the company when it went public in 2010.
By a conservative estimate, Brin’s stake in Tesla is at least $500,000. Were he to sell it today, it would be well over $100 million.
At the time that Tesla went public in June 2010, its stock price was around $4 per share.
As of Monday morning, Tesla stock was trading at north of $811 per share.
Musk, 51, insisted the claims of a fling with his friend’s estranged wife, Shanahan, were “total bs” — even quipping, “Haven’t even had sex in ages (sigh).”
The world’s richest man also sent The Post a photo showing him partying with Brin, 48, who was supposed to have cooled their bromance after the alleged betrayal.
“Took this pic only two hours ago,” Musk told The Post of the photo of him laughing while rubbing shoulders with his fellow billionaire.
The Tesla mogul turned serious to strongly deny the widely-spread Wall Street Journal report that claimed a December fling was behind Brin’s divorce.
“Nicole and Sergey’s divorce has absolutely nothing to do with me,” Musk insisted by email.
“I am sure both Nicole and Sergey would confirm that. I spoke with both Sergey and Nicole about this and they say the story isn’t coming from them, so [it] must be a case of broken telephone, two or three layers removed,” he said.