Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, has raised $7 billion to support his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter.
A Securities and Exchange Commission filing made public on Thursday disclosed that Musk received equity commitment letters of about $7.14 billion from a group of 19 investors.
According to the filing, the biggest contribution comes from Prince al-Waleed bin Talal of Saudi Arabia, who agreed to retain a stake in Twitter valued at $1.9 billion following Musk’s takeover.
Similarly, Larry Ellison, Oracle Corp. co-founder who sits on Tesla’s board, agreed to put in $1 billion for the deal.
Other people who agreed to raise money for the deal include $500 million from Changoeng Zhao, the billionaire developer who controls Binance.com, and $800 million from venture capital stalwarts Sequoia Capital.
Arms of asset managers, Fidelity Investments, and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. also promised to partake in the fundraiser.
It was reported that the money will reduce the amount Musk needs to borrow against his Tesla stake and will reduce the balance of cash he needs to put up personally, to under $20 billion.
Binance.com said its involvement to be part of the fundraising is “as a supporter of Elon Musk’s plans for Twitter and an investor.”
Zhao tweeted that the investment was a small contribution to the cause, according to a spokesperson.
Musk stated that he is in talks to bring more current Twitter shareholders, including co-founder Jack Dorsey, into the company after the buyout.
Meanwhile, Musk had earlier told potential Twitter investors that he could return the company to public markets after a few years of ownership.
According to the company, Musk is now in discussions with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey on contributing some of his shares toward the acquisition, adding that a previously announced margin loan committed toward the deal was reduced to an aggregate principal amount of $6.25 billion from $12.5 billion.
Twitter shares were marked 4 percent higher in early trading following news of the new financing to change hands at $51.10 each while Tesla shares went down to 2.1 percent lower at $932.75 each, according to the filling.
Musk reached a final agreement on 25, April, to acquire Twitter at $44 billion dollars.