Musk lied in saying he had secured funding to take Tesla private. Those lies caused investors who relied on that and other untrue statements to lose money, the attorney, Nicholas Porritt, said.
Musk said he had obtained the funding needed to take Tesla private and had investor support for the deal. But lawyers for Mr. Musk and Tesla have said it is possible investors made decisions based on Mr. Musk's statement that he was considering taking Tesla private — a statement his lawyers claim was true.
The billionaire would need more than 50% to take the company private. The investors contend Musk's tweets in 2018 that he had “funding secured” to take the electric carmaker private amounted to lies that cost them big losses from big price swings before the plan was abandoned.
Tesla has been supported by government subsidies
Notably, the auto company received a $465 million preferential loan from the US Department of Energy in 2010, which it paid off in 2013.
The judge handling the case previously determined that the second piece of Musk's tweet, that he had “funding secured,” was false.
Musk may need to raise more money from outside investors within a year, Mr. Talley said. Mr. Musk already has about $13 billion in debt from lenders, while other investors, like the venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, chipped in about $7.1 billion in cash.
“Musk's companies together had received at least $4.9 billion in government funds and support by 2015, according to an investigation from the Los Angeles Times published that year, suggesting that his company's may also qualify to receive the label.
Tesla Motors was founded as an electric carmaker by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in 2003. Elon Musk, co-founder of Paypal, led the initial rounds of investing for Tesla before taking over as CEO.
While Elon Musk is sometimes referred to as the founder of Tesla, his part in the carmaker's history is more complicated. Martin Eberhard cofounded Tesla in 2003 with his longtime friend Marc Tarpenning. Musk led the company's $7.5 million Series A funding round and became chairman of the board in 2004.
The $1.5 billion sale of PayPal to eBay netted Musk an after-tax profit of $180 million. He invested the proceeds entirely into his new ventures: $100 million into SpaceX, $10 million into SolarCity Corp., and $70 million into Tesla.
Elon Musk. Elon Musk is the largest individual shareholder of Tesla stocks by far. He owns 265.4 million shares of Tesla, representing 23.5% of total outstanding shares, according to an SEC filing on August 4th, 2022.
Musk was put in charge of the company's board of directors. Now, Elon Musk is the co-founder, CEO, and face of Tesla. Now, Elon Musk is the co-founder, CEO, and face of Tesla. He is in charge of the global design, engineering, and manufacturing of the company's electric vehicles, batteries, and solar energy products.
Tesla's entry into the country has been on hold since 2019 as India levies a 60% import duty on EVs priced $40,000 or lower. The import duty is 100% on EVs priced more than $40,000. The US-based maker of the Model S and Roadster hired its first employee, Manuj Khurana, as its head of public policy in March 2021.
Key Facts. The Saudi sovereign wealth fund “unequivocally wanted to take Tesla private,” Musk said on the stand as part of a civil lawsuit accusing Musk of securities fraud, according to Bloomberg (the court's live audio feed was not working in the beginning portion of his testimony).
He soon founded his first company, Zip2 — an online business directory service. This venture quickly made Musk very wealthy and he sold the business to Compaq for around $300m in 1999. This cash was then used to kickstart his next venture, X.com, which later became PayPal (PYPL).
The billionaire's largest gift during the period was $55 million to the Memphis-based St Jude Children's Research Hospital, followed by $54 million to the X Prize Foundation, which he partnered with in 2021 to create a prize for carbon removal projects.
In short, he didn't. Tesla was founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in 2003. Elon Musk joined Tesla in 2004 after investing $6.3 million in Tesla stocks during a Series A investment round. Musk was appointed to the position of Chairman of its Board of Directors.
However, when it comes to tackling the daily commute, Musk has previously revealed his go-to ride is a Tesla Model S. In a 2019 tweet, Musk said his favourite daily driver was a Model S Performance, followed by a Model 3 Performance, or the brand's Model X SUV if he's driving with any of his nine children in tow.
In 2002, PayPal was acquired by eBay for $1.5 billion in stock, of which Musk—the largest shareholder with 11.72% of shares—received $175.8 million. In 2017, more than 15 years later, Musk purchased the X.com domain from PayPal for its "sentimental value".
A three-for-one stock split in 2022 would have turned the IPO investment into 882.30 shares of TSLA. Based on a price of $185 for Tesla at the time of writing, the $1,000 investment at IPO would be worth $163,225.50 today.
Musk's recent sales shrink his stake in the company to roughly 13%, according to Bloomberg data. Musk, who has been Tesla's CEO since 2008, is still the largest shareholder. As of Wednesday's close, he was worth $160.9 billion, ranking No. 2 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index after France's Bernard Arnault.
Accounting for the Tesla stock splits, this debut-day investor would hold 8,820 shares today. In other words, a $10,000 investment in Tesla's IPO in 2010 would now be worth a staggering $2,643,178. For those of you keeping score at home, this equates to a 26,332% increase in value in just over 12 years.
Griffin later estimated that SpaceX was around 85% funded by the federal government, mostly through his NASA awards, with the remaining 15% funding split between Elon Musk and other private investors.
SpaceX is funded by 84 investors. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority are the most recent investors. SpaceX has a post-money valuation in the range of $10B+ as of Aug 25, 2021 , according to PrivCo.
Musk's best investments include PayPal, SpaceX, DeepMind Technologies, Tesla, and The Boring Company. Elon Musk is an engineer, industrial designer, and technology entrepreneur known for disrupting multiple industries. Musk often holds the distinction of being the world's richest person.