Business magnate, Elon Musk, now owns a 9.2 per cent stake in Twitter.

The information is contained in a United States Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The U.S. agency confirmed that Musk bought 73,486,938 Twitter shares in March.

News of the stake, worth $2.89billion, boosted the company’s shares by about 25% in pre-market trading.

The Tesla founder becomes the largest shareholder with more than four times the 2.25 per cent controlled by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

On March 24, Musk ran a poll asking whether or not the social media platform’s algorithm should be open source.

The billionaire later asked whether or not Twitter rigorously adheres to the principle of free speech.

After the majority replied ‘no’, Musk asked whether a new networking site was needed, disclosing he was considering starting his own.