Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Monday he was in talks with the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund and other investors to take the electric automaker private.
United States' market regulators last week reportedly asked the company to explain Musk's claim in an August 7 Twitter post that financing for a deal to take Tesla private had been “secured".
But Musk said in a blog post on Monday he had “no question” that the Saudis would finance such a transaction following a July 31 meeting. The transaction would be structured with equity so as not to burden Tesla with crushing debt, Musk added.
He also revealed that the Saudi fund had been insisting that Musk take the company private for the past two years.
"Going back almost two years, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund has approached me multiple times about taking Tesla private," he wrote. "Obviously, the Saudi sovereign fund has more than enough capital needed to execute on such a transaction."