The Tesla CEO once tried to take his EV company private — using Saudi money
Elon Musk, during his tenure as CEO of Tesla $TSLA, famously attempted to take the company private with the backing of the Saudi Public Investment Fund — a wealth fund directly controlled by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. Yet it seems Musk no longer thinks such a move is viable or reasonable for electric automakers: The world’s second-richest man took to X $TWTR to deride Lucid $LCID for its Saudi funding.
Lucid is majority owned by the same Saudi sovereign fund that Musk tried to sell Tesla to — the same fund that still holds a considerable stake in Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter.
Musk’s tone, plus the context of his social network’s crackdown on “sensitive content,” makes it clear his use of “sugar daddy” here is derogatory — he sees Lucid as unable to stand on its own, without the backing of an authoritarian regime. That same regime propped up Tesla during its developmental years.
Saudi Arabia routinely jails human rights advocates, bans them from travel long after their sentences are served, and even commits mass executions for crimes like “disrupting the social fabric and national cohesion” or “in and inciting sit-ins and protest,” according to Amnesty International.
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