The equity commitments from 19 investors, including Larry Ellison, a Saudi Prince, a16z and Sequoia Capital come as Musk marshals capital to bankroll one of the biggest tech industry takeovers. Musk had originally said he planned to fund the deal in part with a $12.5b loan against his shares in Tesla, which the new funding will allow him to reduce by half the size.
“In this game of high stakes poker, Ellison and the impressive list of backers will remove more of an overhang from Tesla shares as the Musk leverage of shares now becomes less onerous,” said Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush. “This was a smart financial and strategic move by Musk that will be well received across the board.”