Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund Negotiation Tesla Rival Lucid, Musk's Hope May Fail

According to Reuters Beijing time on August 20, informed sources said that the Saudi sovereign wealth fund public investment fund (PIF) is negotiating to invest in ambitious Tesla rival lucid motors. Earlier, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had high hopes for the Saudi public investment fund that it could provide funds to help itself complete the $72 billion Tesla privatization transaction.Lucid's negotiations with the Saudi public investment fund highlighted the latter's desire to invest in electric vehicle manufacturers to diversify its portfolio. Saudi Arabia's public investment fund currently has limited resources and is more suitable for investing in lucid. Although the asset scale has reached US $250 billion, the Saudi public investment fund has made a lot of commitments to other technology companies and investment transactions, including US $45 billion investment in the giant Technology Fund led by Softbank group.People familiar with the matter said that lucid and the Saudi public investment fund had drawn up a term sheet. According to this list, Saudi public investment funds can invest more than US $1 billion in lucid and obtain a majority stake. However, the initial investment of Saudi public investment fund in lucid is only US $500 million, and the subsequent cash injection will be carried out in two stages, depending on whether lucid can complete specific production milestones.

Lucid's negotiations with Saudi public investment funds may not lead to a deal. Lucid and Saudi public investment funds have yet to comment.

Lucid was founded in 2007 by Bernard TSE, a former vice president and director of Tesla, and Sam Weng, a former Oracle executive. Its original name was atieva. It has won the support of Chinese investors, including Jia Yueting and BAIC group. Lucid has not yet started selling any cars. In 2016, lucid released the lucid air prototype, hoping to start producing this luxury car in Arizona at the end of this year, with a price of up to $100000. It is unclear when lucid air will be available, but lucid is accepting a $2500 refundable deposit from consumers on its website.

Musk shocked financial markets earlier this month when he said he was considering privatizing Tesla at $420 per share. He also said that privatization funds were "in place". He also explained last Monday that the Saudi public investment fund is expected to provide the necessary funds for privatization. Earlier this year, the Saudi public investment fund acquired slightly less than 5% of Tesla shares through the acquisition of shares in the open market, and did not subscribe for Tesla's newly issued shares.