As the internet’s most-read auto website among the elite billionaires of the world, I can’t believe I’ve yet to solicit tips from one of our most beloved group of readers on this: Do you know who is backing Elon Musk’s bid to take Tesla private? No one seems to have any idea. Do you?
If Musk meant what everyone reasonably understood him to mean when he said he had the “funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420 a share, then, well, whomever, or whichever company, is making that dream come true isn’t talking.
The list of possible candidates with enough cash to pony up the estimated $80 something billion dollars necessary to make it work is already slim as it is. The sovereign wealth funds of Norway and Saudi Arabia seem unlikely, and the notion of an oil-enriched fund buying out the all-electric Tesla seems, uh, weird?
Dan Primack of news outlet Axios sniffed around as well, and came up short:
Bloomberg caught up with more than a dozen firms and, well:
People with or close to 15 financial institutions and technology firms who spoke on the condition of anonymity said they weren’t aware of financing having been locked in before Musk’s tweet.
A spokesperson for a California teachers’ pension fund, which owns more than 200,000 Tesla shares, had no idea about Musk’s plan, either.
“We have not been contacted by Tesla IR,” spokesperson Michelle Mussuto told Bloomberg. “They didn’t reach out before the tweet either.”
Hilariously, not even Tesla’s biggest current backers seemed to know what the hell Musk was talking about, per The New York Times:
Some of Tesla’s big institutional investors — including Fidelity and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund — also were blindsided by Mr. Musk’s comments, according to people close to those companies.
And so I ask you, our dearly beloved swath of super wealthy, very appreciated, devoted Kinja commenters: do you know who is backing Musk’s bid? Surely, if so, you’d like to dish, right?
Then reach out at tips@jalopnik.com.