Elon Musk Clarifies Funding Claim, Says Saudi PIF Interested For Two Years

Tesla CEO Elon Musk caused a stir last week when he posted a comment on Twitter that the electric car manufacturer might go private. He also controversially claimed that he had already secured funding for the proposal, which would set Tesla’s (TSLA) shares at $420 apiece.

In a Monday blost post on Tesla’s website, Musk elaborated on what he meant about “funding secured.” He also explained the public nature of his announcement, which could land him in legal trouble if his claims about funding were not true.

According to Musk, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia has expressed interest in helping Tesla go private for about two years. The wealth fund is used to make investments for the Saudi Arabian government and is no stranger to tech investments. The PIF invested $3.5 billion in ride-sharing giant Uber in 2016.

Musk claimed the Saudi government wants to invest in Tesla so it can have more than just oil to its name and that he declared funding was secured because of confidence that the PIF would make a commitment once both sides put the process in motion.

Over the weekend, sources with knowledge of the situation told Reuters that the PIF had no interest in investing in Tesla.

Additionally, Musk said he announced the privatization on Twitter in order to share the news with as many investors as possible. It would have been unfair to privately tell only the largest Tesla investors, he claimed.

“As a result, it was clear to me that the right thing to do was announce my intentions publicly,” Musk wrote. “To be clear, when I made the public announcement, just as with this blog post and all other discussions I have had on this topic, I am speaking for myself as a potential bidder for Tesla.”

Shares of Tesla were down 0.21 percent in early trading Monday.