Summoning of Saudi Public Investment Fund Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan in Musk's 'Secured Funding' Tweet Case

New York, United States - Elon Musk's legal team has summoned Yasser Al-Rumayyan, the head of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, as part of the litigation regarding the Tesla CEO's 2018 tweet in which he claimed he was considering taking the car company private and that he had secured funding to do so. Musk has long maintained that he was contemplating making Tesla a private company at the time he posted the tweet, stating that his comment about "secured funding" was based on discussions with the massive sovereign wealth fund in Saudi Arabia, which he said encouraged him to take the company private and offered to increase its investments in Tesla, as the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia invests in entities crucial for economic growth and claims to have $620 billion in assets under management as of early 2022.

Musk's team is now seeking to have Yasser Al-Rumayyan, the head of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, testify as part of the litigation, according to a subpoena filed in December that was unsealed on Tuesday. Musk's team also summoned three other members of the Saudi Public Investment Fund. The Saudi Public Investment Fund declined to comment to Afaq News regarding the subpoenas.

Tesla shareholders filed a lawsuit against Musk in 2018, claiming he did not have "secured funding" to take the company private at $420 per share, as he stated in a tweet that year which caused sharp fluctuations in Tesla's stock that investors claimed harmed their investment portfolios. Musk eventually settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at the time regarding the tweets, stepped down as chairman of Tesla's board, and agreed to have his use of social media overseen, although he appeared to violate the agreement several times.