My understanding is that the majority of his personal net worth is from Tesla (+Solar City) and SpaceX. Would that limit his ability to personally fund Tesla?
Just did some rough math on this. He's reported to have 55% of SpaceX, recently valued at 27.5B [1], and ~19% of Tesla [2], most recently at ~44B, for a combined net worth of ~23B (before any debt). He therefore definitely couldn't personally buy out Tesla at current prices, and any significant investment of personal funds would require the sale of SpaceX shares.
Also, much of his liquid pocket money has come from loans backed by his Tesla Stock. This could be a problem if Tesla stock price drops too much, as the stock he has pledge is required to be no less than a multiple of the money he has borrowed. [3]
You state that he can't buy out Tesla, which is true. But why does he need to buy out Tesla to cover their debt? On the contrary he would need to sell some of his Tesla (and perhaps SpaceX) stock and give the cash to Tesla to cover their debt.
w1|7 years ago
Also, much of his liquid pocket money has come from loans backed by his Tesla Stock. This could be a problem if Tesla stock price drops too much, as the stock he has pledge is required to be no less than a multiple of the money he has borrowed. [3]
Disclosure: I am short Tesla.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/13/equidate-spacex-27-billion-v... [2] https://money.usnews.com/investing/stock-market-news/article... [3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimcollins/2018/05/18/musk-has-...
bfwi|7 years ago
You state that he can't buy out Tesla, which is true. But why does he need to buy out Tesla to cover their debt? On the contrary he would need to sell some of his Tesla (and perhaps SpaceX) stock and give the cash to Tesla to cover their debt.