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Elon Musk’s X apparently received funding from some pretty shady people.
A federal judge Ordered On Tuesday, Musk announced that the list of investors who provided funding for X (formerly Twitter), which he acquired for $44 billion in October 2022, would be made public. Among the nearly 100 investors, there are a few particularly disturbing figures.
One entity listed is Sean Combs Capital, LLC, better known as Sean “Diddy” Combs, the rapper who has been accused of rape, assault, forced drugging, and even allegedly engaging in sex trafficking.
In the early days of acquiring Google X, Musk Tout He used his relationship with Combs to allay another investor’s concerns about growing racism on social media platforms.
In the forthcoming book Character Limit Kate Conger and Ryan Mac report that Detavio Samuels, CEO of the media company Revolt, expressed his concerns about anti-Black rhetoric being encouraged on X.
“As you continue down the path that you’re on, I really recommend that you have a conversation with this particular community and that we make sure that whatever solution is created makes them feel safe and in a welcoming space,” Samuels said.
While Musk said he wanted to make sure people felt comfortable, he thought Samuels might be comforted if he heard that one of his high-profile black friends had also invested in Musk’s social media site. “I don’t know if you know this, but Pav is an investor in Twitter,” Musk said, using Combs’ nickname. “You know, he’s my best friend and we text all the time.”
The list also includes several Silicon Valley entities run by billionaires like Musk himself and that supported Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
The first name to make the list is Andreessen-Horowitz, the venture capital firm run by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, which recently Announce They support Trump in 2024. “This is not about the big issues that people care about,” Andreessen claimed, making it clear that he ignores Trump’s platform on immigration and abortion, while taking a more favorable view on issues such as cryptocurrency — a space in which Andreessen and Horowitz claim to be among the world’s largest investors.
Also on the list are Sequoia Capital, run by Douglas Lyons and Sean Maguire, who donated $1 million and $500,000, respectively, to Musk’s pro-Trump super PAC. American Political Action Committee,at present Under investigation Because the way it collects voter information is improper.
Another investor is 8VC, a venture capital firm run by Joe Lonsdale, who also donated $1 million to Musk’s PAC in June. Lonsdale is the co-founder of Palantir, an intelligence contractor and data analytics platform also headed by Peter Thiel. While it’s not surprising that Musk’s billionaire associates invested in his social media company, it’s clear that a large number of X’s underwriters are the same people who bankrolled Trump’s campaign.
The list of investors also includes Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, who has long held a stake in the social media company. In 2015, Bin Talal held a 5.2% stake in Twitter, surpassing the company’s co-founder Jack Dorsey.
Bin Talal was arrested in November 2017 as part of a massive “anti-corruption” purge that forced many of Saudi Arabia’s wealthy and royal family members to transfer their assets to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, an autocrat with no tolerance for dissent. Causes major concerns The Saudi government is using Twitter to spy on its citizens.
After Musk’s acquisition of Tesla, bin Talal and Kingdom Holding Company of Saudi Arabia reportedly still held $1.89 billion worth of X shares, making them together the company’s second-largest investor. Al Jazeera.
Another notable entity is the Pershing Square Foundation, which is led by Bill Ackman, CEO of the giant hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management. Last year, Ackman, a staunch Zionist, Funding violent pro-Israel counter-protesters On the university campus, Led the movement Saw the removal of Harvard University President Claudine Gay.
Earlier this week, Reported The $13 billion in loans Musk took out from various banks to acquire Google X has never been transferred off those banks’ balance sheets, leaving his debt “overhang” in the industry. Google X is not only the longest-standing overhang since the 2008 financial crisis, but it’s also reportedly one of the largest overhangs. While the banks have been able to charge high interest, it’s unclear how Musk will repay the principal if Google X continues on its current trajectory.
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