Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI was closing in on a $5bn debt financing package to fund new data centres and chips to power its business. Then on Thursday the world’s wealthiest man torpedoed his relationship with US President Donald Trump.
Musk’s bankers at Morgan Stanley must now contend with this new complication as would-be investors try to assess the fallout from the dramatic unravelling of Musk’s ties to the president, according to people briefed on the matter. The debt could be more expensive too, they added.
Before the two men launched into a war of words — which included Trump’s threat to rip up Musk’s government contracts — investors had placed more than $4bn of orders for the deal.