Elon Musk's texts
Welcome to Internal Tech Emails: internal tech industry emails that surface in public records. š If you havenāt signed up, join 50,000+ others and get the newsletter:
Elon Musk texts Airbnb cofounder
August 7, 2018
Joe Gebbia
Baller move
Elon Musk
ā½š
Elon Musk
Sucks being public
Joe Gebbia
Sucks being private without IPO alternative for inst investors/employees with RSUās
Elon Musk
Works for SpaceX
Elon Musk
We do a liquidity event every 6 months
Elon Musk
You might have similar problem I had with Tesla though. Too many individual financing rounds with aggravating terms. Only way to clear out the stupid assholes was to go public.
Joe Gebbia
Exactly. No other IPO alternative exists at the moment.
Joe Gebbia
SpaceX must be RSU free...
Elon Musk
No, we mostly issue RSUs
August 9, 2018
Joe Gebbia
How are they structured that selling them in a liquidity event doesnāt trigger tax on the entire holding of the employee
Elon Musk
Tax is paid as they vest. For the first 5 or 6 years, people just got options, so this wasnāt an issue.
Joe Gebbia
so it was a blend
Joe Gebbia
Their not selling rsuās..
Elon Musk
Thing is that I have a ton of stock and havenāt had to pay tax on it
Elon Musk
SpaceX is 16 years old, so vast majority of people have RSUs
Elon Musk
Most of last decade has been RSUs
Elon Musk
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/what-tesla-shareholders-could-learn-from-spacex
Joe Gebbia
Would Bret be down to chat with our cfo
Elon Musk
Sure
Joe Gebbia
Cool. Send him over to me and Iāll add her. [REDACTED]
Elon Musk texts Larry Page
August 9, 2018
Elon Musk
Just called. Btw, this is Elon. Not sure if you have my new number.
August 11, 2018
ļ»æLarry Page
Nope didn't have it...am traveling. Nice block 5!
Elon Musk
Thanks!
Elon Musk
Wanna invest in Tesla? š
Larry Page
I'll ask David Drummond to reach out to your folks.
Elon Musk
Sorry, I'm kinda into emojis these days
Elon Musk
šæ
Elon Musk texts Saudi Public Investment Fund
August 10, 2018
Elon Musk
This is a major problem. It is extremely important that you confirm that you are in discussions with me regarding the take private transaction. Nothing more needs to be said. If this is not said, we will never speak again. Never.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Elon, As you know, PIF purchased a passive stake in shares of Tesla on the market in April 2018 as part of our investment strategy to diversify away from oil and increase our investment in emerging technologies, including electronic vehicles. PIF remains interested in potential investment opportunities that are consistent with its investment strategy and the EV space is one of interest. We would like to explore investing in Tesla subject to being able to create a Tesla production hub in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that serves MENA, Europe, Asia and Africa with the right incentives on all fronts (subsidies on energy and land, tax exemptions, support in obtaining financing, etc). Therefore, as discussed, we would like our teams to start working together in a confidential manner to explore a potential transaction. All the best, Yasir
Elon Musk
Thank you, this is much appreciated. Very important that media inquiries confirm this statement.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Please note that any SAUDI venture will be 100% owned by Tesla And no strains attached.
Elon Musk
Got it, thanks
August 12, 2018
Elon Musk
https://apple.news/AMD306Am6Q3y1mpEMnfqCKA
Elon Musk
What the hell is going on here? This is false.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Itās not true. No body talked to them.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Good morning Elon, Just wanted to check-in and see when your team would be able to start sending us information and perhaps have a kickoff call with our International Investments Team. If Sam can organize, that would be great. Best, Yasir
Elon Musk
Please refute this false statement that PIF has no interest in Tesla. This is outrageous.
Elon Musk
I am deeply offended
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-12/saudi-fund-is-said-to-be-in-talks-to-invest-in-tesla-buyout-deal
Elon Musk
This is an extremely weak statement and does not reflect the conversation we had at Tesla. You said you were definitely interested in taking Tesla private and had wanted to do so since 2016. You also made it clear that you were the decision-maker, moreover backed strongly by the Crown Prince, who regards this as strategically important at a national level.
Elon Musk
Iām sorry, but we cannot work together
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Itās up to you Elon
Elon Musk
You are throwing me under the bus
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
It takes two to tango We havenāt received any thing yet
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Letās get on the phone and discuss
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Are available now
Elon Musk
Sorry
Elon Musk
Itās over
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Letās see the numbers and get our people to meet and discuss. We cannot approve something that we donāt have sufficient information on. Weāve agreed that you will send the financial information and the way going forward within a week and no thing happened since. The last thing I want to do is the āthrough you under the busā I am your friend. So, please donāt treat me like an enemy. Iām willing to fly to you or we can meet somewhere in Europe and discuss a constructive next steps.
Elon Musk
Tesla is a publicly traded company and there is detailed information in our earnings newsletter and Q&A afterwards
Elon Musk
You bought 5% based on that
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Details on how we can take the company private
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Thatās what we agreed on
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
What is the required percentage and so on
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
What are required regulatory thresholds for taking it private
Elon Musk
Yasir, when we met at Tesla recently, you said that you were the decision-maker for PIF, that you had wanted to do the Tesla take-private deal for two years, and that this was supported directly by the Crown Prince. I checked with my team who were in that meeting in case I remembered something wrong and they confirmed this exactly.
Elon Musk
You are extremely experienced financially and are well-aware of what a go-private would require, which is that there would need to be at least a 20% premium to market in order to buy out any shareholders who donāt want to remain part of the company when it is private. This is all standard practice. Nothing unusual at all.
Elon Musk
There are many other investment funds who want to be part of this deal. We do not need your fund to get this done. I will not work with an organization whoās public statement to the media do not match their private statements to me and my team.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
We havenāt taken any company private yet in the us or any where els and the agreement as was minuted by my people is to wait for the information to be sent be you within a week, on how we will move forward to gather.
Elon Musk
Please extend an offer to the Crown Prince that I would like to apologize personally and explain why Tesla will not with PIF in this transaction.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
We havenāt gone to the media yet
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Read the article please
Elon Musk
I read the article. It is weak sauce and still makes me sound like a liar. It is filled with equivocation and in no way indicates the strong interest you conveyed in person.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Letās meet ASAP. Please let me know what works for you
Elon Musk
I am sorry, but there will be no further communication unless you fix the public perception of wishy washy support and interest from PIF. That is not what you said to me and my team privately. Someone is either a friend or not a friend and no friend says one thing privately and another thing publicly. This is not right.
Elon Musk
In light of these actions and nothing meaningful done to correct them, Tesla will be moving forward with Silver Lake, Goldman and other investors to take Tesla private.
Elon Musk
Please let them know if you wish to retain or sell your current position in Tesla
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
I will ask Shihana to call Sam so they can work on PIF statement.
Elon Musk
Thank you. This means a great deal.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
š
August 13, 2018
Yasir Al-Rumayyan
Elon, I am personally surprised. You have signed an NDA and while we are waiting for you and your team to provide us with information to move forward, you post an ill-advised blog with loose information. Anyway, we hope that you and your team work on gathering the information as soon as possible and send that to us to move forward. Yasir
Elon Musk
You shouldnāt be
Elon Musk
Iām still upset
Elon Musk
You allowed people to think that I was a liar
Elon Musk
Reuters reported that two sources from PIF confirmed no interest in Tesla, which is absolutely false, and yet you did nothing until I forced the issue
Elon Musk
Regarding the take-private proposal, I have engaged Silver Lake and Goldman. We will have documents ready in about a week. Since we are a publicly traded company, any non-public information about Tesla will need to be vetted carefully and, if considered material by legal counsel, will need to be provided to all shareholders simultaneously.
[These documents are from In re Tesla Inc. Securities Litigation (2022).]
Links to original tweets: Airbnb cofounder, Larry Page, Saudi Public Investment Fund
Further context: "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured."
Further reading on SpaceX's ownership model
Previously: Elon Muskās Twitter texts (March and April 2022)
If you upgrade to a paid subscription, youāll receive access to the full archive of internal tech emails, with 200+ documents from Apple, Google, Meta, Tesla, and more. Youāll also support our work: every year, we track hundreds of court cases and review more than 10,000 filings to bring you @TechEmails.