Saudi Arabia’s sovereign fund eyes investment in Lucid Motors, report says
The fund already has a 5 percent stake in Tesla.
Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, PIF, recently made headlines when Elon Musk said they would potentially provide the funding to take Tesla private. But they might be considering a separate investment with a different EV startup, too.
PIF is considering an investment in Lucid Motors, a privately held EV startup, Reuters reports, citing people familiar with the matter. Neither PIF nor Lucid Motors immediately returned requests for comment.
The sources told Reuters that PIF's initial investment in Lucid Motors could be as high as $500 million, but it could very well invest more than $1 billion overall, which would give PIF majority ownership of the California-based company. The initial investment will reportedly grow if the company is able to hit production milestones, according to Reuters' sources. However, no deal is guaranteed at this stage.
The Lucid Air is believed to enter production this year, but we haven't heard much from the EV startup of late. Power comes from either a single electric motor powering the rear wheels or two motors powering all four wheels, depending on the trim chosen, and output subsequently varies between 400 and 1,000 horsepower. Estimated pricing came out in 2017, with a base Air coming in at $60,000 before incentives, topping out north of $100,000.
PIF first made national headlines as part of Elon Musk's latest fiasco. After tweeting that he wanted to take the company private at $420 per share, nobody really knew who offered to pony up the billions of dollars that going private would require. Musk eventually claimed that he was in talks with PIF to provide the funding, after it secretly amassed a 5 percent stake in the company, but conflicting reports and a lack of confirmation left more questions than answers. The SEC is reportedly investigating Musk's claim that the funding for going private was "secured" at the time of his tweet.
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