A 300-page motion filed with courts late last week has revealed some insights about Elon Musk‘s tweet back in 2018 around ‘funding secured’ to take Tesla private.
Musk and Tesla of course are currently being sued by stakeholders due to the tweet.
The texts unveil an interesting discussion between Musk and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, head of the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF).
Elon Musk texts Saudi Public Investment Fund
August 10, 2018 pic.twitter.com/N9tIfrpfx2
— Internal Tech Emails (@TechEmails) April 24, 2022
The texts reveal that Musk was working towards a deal, but then walked away after supposed leaks from the PIF to journalists claiming there was no deal.
— Internal Tech Emails (@TechEmails) April 24, 2022
Musk has always been about being upfront and honest, and reporting at the time paired with weak Saudi statements angered the Tesla CEO.
August 13, 2018 pic.twitter.com/ONHUe3ebya
— Internal Tech Emails (@TechEmails) April 24, 2022
Despite a promising partnership, evidently things did not work out.
Musk also noted that Tesla was going to go forward with a proposal from Silver Lake and Goldman, but as we have since seen, that did not pane out.
Musk spoke on the release of the 2018 tweets in a response to Whole Mars Catalog.
The tweet said:
The head of Saudi PIF committed unequivocally to take Tesla private with me, as witnessed by the Tesla CFO and several others. That is why I said funding was secured.
The head of Saudi PIF committed unequivocally to take Tesla private with me, as witnessed by the Tesla CFO and several others. That is why I said funding was secured.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 25, 2022
At least to say, these text records are an interesting glimpse into the back story of the infamous 2018 tweet.
It will be interesting to see where things go from here, and how these messages effect the upcoming case.
