Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund (called the 'Public Investment Fund' – PIF) is reportedly working to be part of any investor pool that emerges to take Tesla private.
Bloomberg reported that the fund, which recently built a stake of almost 5 % in Tesla is exploring how it can be involved. The report cited anonymous sources.
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The report suggested that the PIF sees its investment in Tesla as a strategic way to hedge against oil and that talks are ongoing.
Musk raised the idea of delisting Tesla last week, prompting speculation that he has sounded out sources to supply the necessary capital for a deal that may be valued in excess of U$82bn. The Bloomberg report said that Musk is hoping to avoid having one or two large stakeholders in a private company and would instead prefer to gather the funds from a larger group.
In a letter to employees last week, Musk said that being a public company subjects Tesla to the quarterly earnings cycle that 'puts enormous pressure on Tesla to make decisions that may be right for a given quarter, but not necessarily right for the long-term'.
Musk owns 20% of the company, and that won't change substantially if the deal goes through, he said in the letter.
See also: Tesla board to meet on Musk's 'go private' plan
