Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images
Elon Musk has secured $7.1 billion in new financing for his takeover of Twitter — which CNBC reports will include assuming the role of “temporary CEO” — with this round of funding coming from a group of sometimes high-profile outside investors. At the top of the list is Larry Ellison, with the co-founder and current CTO of Oracle committing $1 billion to the purchase.
Ellison has said that he is “very close friends” with Musk, and he was added to Tesla’s board in 2018. As one of the richest people alive — a superlative he shares with Musk — and an estimated net worth of over $100 billion, the investment is relatively small change for him. Back in 2012, Ellison bought nearly the entire Hawaiian island of Lanai for around $500 million.
