Elon Musk says he’s ‘open to the idea’ of buying Silicon Valley Bank, but a Tesla investor tells him ‘no thanks’
Silicon Valley Bank #SiliconValleyBank
Elon Musk said late Friday he was “open to the idea” of buying Silicon Valley Bank after its collapse, but the idea had a frosty reception from at least one Tesla investor.
“I think Twitter should buy SVB and become a digital bank,” tweeted Min-Liang Tan, cofounder and CEO of Razer, a company that sells gaming computers.
Musk said in a short response “I’m open to the idea,” without giving further context.
One Twitter user backed Musk’s idea, saying “what an opportunity,” but another called Sanjay responded: “And sell another $20 billion worth of $Tesla stock. No thanks!”
Sanjay’s Twitter profile describes him as a “Tesla customer and investor, bull and Elon fan.” Insider couldn’t verify whether the user was a shareholder or the size of his holding.
Musk made a series of Tesla stock sales last year to help finance his Twitter acquisition, helping to depress the share price. The CEO sold stock worth $8.5 billion in April, $6.9 billion in August, $3.95 billion in November, and $3.6 billion in December, totaling almost $23 billion.
Silicon Valley Bank was shut down on Friday by US regulators following a run on deposits, Insider’s Sindhu Sundar explained. Startup founders moved to withdraw funds on Thursday, rattled by the bank’s falling stock price that followed a capital raising announced on Wednesday night.
The bank is now being handled by receivers, potentially delaying access to deposits for a considerable period of time. Some hope that a buyer will come forward this weekend to avoid such a scenario.
Musk and Sanjay didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider, made outside normal working hours.