Tesla shares rose 3 percent to $129.23 on Thursday after falling 8.9 percent in regular trading hours.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday that he will not sell any more Tesla shares for the next two years.
Speaking in a Twitter Spaces audio chat, Musk said he expects the economy to be in a "severe recession" in 2023 and that there will be less demand for big-ticket items.
Musk said, "I won't sell the stock until I know, maybe two years from now. Certainly not next year under any circumstances and probably not the year after that."
Tesla shares rose 3 percent to $129.23 on Thursday after falling 8.9 percent in regular trading hours.
A recent Bloomberg report said that Tesla Inc. Musk's net worth fell $7.7 billion on Tuesday after his shares posted the sharpest one-day decline since October.
The Tesla CEO's net worth is now $147.7 billion, the lowest in more than two years, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His fortune mainly consists of Tesla stock and options. The automaker's spiraling shares pose a particular risk for Musk, 51, who used much of his position to finance its acquisition of Twitter in October.
On December 15, Musk sold shares worth about $3.58 billion, a US securities filing showed. According to the filing, Musk had sold 22 million shares of the electric-vehicle maker. According to the filing, he sold the stock over three days between December 12-15.
Earlier, on December 9, he had sold 19.5 million shares of the electric vehicle maker for $3.95 billion after completing the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter Inc.
Musk previously promised not to sell Tesla stock before the latter. Last week, Musk disclosed $3.6 billion in stock sales, taking the total since late last year to near $40 billion and disappointing investors as the company's shares fell to a two-year low.
The billionaire said, "I need to sell some stock to make sure, like, the powder is dry... to account for the worst-case scenario."
He said Tesla's board is open to share buybacks, but it will depend on the scale of the downturn.
On Thursday, Tesla shares plunged 9 percent after Tesla began offering deep, $7,500 rebates to US consumers, fueling investor concern about softening demand as the economy slows.
"I think there is going to be some macro drama that is greater than people currently think," he said, adding that homes and cars will be "disproportionately affected" by economic conditions.
Musk said Tesla is close to choosing the location of its new "gigafactory". Local newspaper Reforma reported on Monday that Tesla could announce the construction of a "gigafactory" in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo Leon as soon as Friday with an initial investment of $800 million and $1 billion.
Asked whether he would bring in someone like venture capitalist David Sachs to run Twitter to allow him to focus on Tesla, Musk dodged the question, saying Twitter was a relatively simple business.
"[Twitter] is probably 10% of Tesla's complexity," Musk said.
Musk said earlier this week that he would step down as chief executive of Twitter once he "found someone stupid enough to take the job."
In response to concerns that his political views and controversial comments were alienating some people, he said, "I'm not going to choose to stifle my views just to increase the share price."
Musk has increasingly used Twitter's live audio platform to weigh in on his product and strategic decisions at the social media company, which he took private in October in a $44 billion deal.
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