Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has doubled his stake in Twitter Inc. He announced on Wednesday that he now owns more than five percent of the social media giant.

It took US$50 million [AU$69 million] for Alwaleed to raise his investment firm Kingdom Holding’s stake in Twitter to 0.72 percent. The Saudi billionaire himself owns 4.45 percent of the company, which equals to 30,100,078 shares, according to Reuters. Over the past six weeks, the total shares of the prince and his company have been raised to 34,948,975 shares, making Alwaleed Twitter’s second-largest shareholder. Alwaleed and Kingdom Holding made a joint statement to confirm the update.

"This combined investment makes Prince Alwaleed and KHC the second largest shareholders in Twitter," AFP quoted the statement.

Alwaleed is the owner of 95 percent of the company. In 2011, The Saudi prince and his company invested $300 million (AUD 417 million) in Twitter. Twitter, which listed on the New York Stock Exchange in November 2013, has a market capitalisation of $18.7 billion (AUD 26 billion).

Twitter closed Tuesday on the NYSE at $27.62 (AUD 38.38), which means that market value of Alwaleed-Kingdom stands at more than $965 million (AUD 1.34 billion). Kingdom has also invested in Citigroup, Four Seasons hotels and the Euro Disney theme park.

Meanwhile, Twitter earlier this week announced “Twitter Moments” to help its users get updated about what’s happening at the moment. It is a new tab with a “lightning bolt,” which helps users discover stories unfolding on Twitter.

“We will always be faithful to individual voices when we include them in Moments and will not include Tweets in a way that misleads, or include any protected Tweets or accounts,” Twitter declared on its blog.

Contact the writer at feedback@ibtimes.com.au, or let us know what you think below.

RELATED STORIES