Elon Musk made the “split-second decision” to tweet that he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private in 2018 after seeing a story in the Financial Times, a lawyer for the billionaire told jurors in San Francisco on Wednesday.
Musk sent the message while in a car on the way to an airport after he read a report in the FT detailing how Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund had quietly acquired a $2bn stake in the electric vehicle group, a lawyer for Musk and Tesla, Alex Spiro, said.
Days earlier, Musk had met with the PIF to discuss taking Tesla private, Spiro said, adding that the billionaire had felt compelled to tweet over fears details of that meeting would also soon leak.