Tesla CEO and founder Elon Musk has raised $7.14bn of funding for his $44bn Twitter buyout from three investors including Oracle’s co-founder Larry Ellison, crypto exchange Binance and asset management firms Fidelity, Brookfield and Sequoia Capital.
The biggest new backing for his purchase since the announcement comes from Oracle’s Larry Ellison, who is contributing a total of $1bn. Venture capital firm Sequoia is providing $800mn, while Dubai-based tech investment firm VyCapital is giving $700mn and Binance is providing $500mn.
The new financing commitments will help Musk cut the margin loan he has taken from lenders by half to $6.25bn and increase the equity commitment to $27.25bn. The remainder of the purchase price will be paid with debt raised from global banks.
Musk also revealed in a filing that he is also working to bring in additional equity investors and high net worth individuals to contribute to the acquisition. His key target includes billionaire and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey to give his existing shareholders an option to contribute their shares to the buyout.
He added in the filing that any further contributions may replace portions of the financing commitments previously arranged. Musk says he will continue to hold talks with large investment firms for his Twitter acquisition and tie up less of his wealth in the buyout.
