Elon Musk has obtained a $1 billion loan from SpaceX, the rocket company he leads, coinciding with his acquisition of Twitter, now rebranded as X. This information was reported by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The loan, backed by some of Musk’s stock in SpaceX, was approved in October, and Musk accessed the entire amount in the same month, according to documents cited in the report. He finalized the purchase of Twitter during the same period.
The report notes that Musk has engaged in various borrowing arrangements with banks using his shares in multiple companies, including Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer. However, SpaceX, as a privately held entity, has also acted as a source of loans for him, complicating his financial landscape amid the Twitter transaction.
Musk holds a 42 percent ownership stake in SpaceX, granting him approximately 79 percent of the company’s voting power, as of March, according to a filing with the Federal Communications Commission. The report indicates that SpaceX had $4.7 billion in cash and securities at the end of the previous year, as per the documents reviewed.
Requests for comment from both SpaceX and X went unanswered at the time of publication.
In 2022, Musk sold a substantial amount of his Tesla shares, totaling around $40 billion, both prior to and following the Twitter acquisition. This move has drawn frustration from investors in Tesla.
In April 2023, Tesla announced it had implemented stricter regulations concerning Musk’s ability to utilize his shares for acquiring loans, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Beyond Tesla and X, Musk is also a co-founder of Neuralink, a brain-chip startup.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
