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Elon Musk

Tesla Wins Tencent Backing as China Tech Giant Buys 5% Stake

March 28, 2017
The acquisition makes Tencent Tesla’s fifth-largest shareholder, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. bought a 5% stake in Tesla Inc. (IW 500/227), a vote of confidence in Elon Musk and his ambitions to take on more mass-market carmakers by bringing the Model 3 sedan to market.

Shenzhen-based Tencent paid about $1.8 billion for 8.17 million shares through Tesla’s recent stock offering and via open-market purchases, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday. The acquisition makes Tencent, the owner of the WeChat messaging app, Tesla’s fifth-largest shareholder, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“Elon Musk is the archetype for entrepreneurship, combining vision, ambition, and execution,” Tencent said in an email. “Tesla is a global pioneer at the forefront of new technologies including electric vehicles, assisted driving, shared vehicles, digitizing real-world information, sustainable energy generation and scalable energy storage.”

Tesla raised as much as $1.4 billion through a stock and debt offering earlier this month, more than initially sought, as it looked to cushion its balance sheet amid heavy spending to introduce the lower-priced Model 3. Tencent’s Chairman Ma Huateng envisions his company developing AI technology for driverless cars in the future.

Shares of Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tesla rose 1.9% to $275.42 as of 8:15 a.m. in New York, before the start of regular trading.

By Anne Riley Moffat

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Bloomberg

Licensed content from Bloomberg, copyright 2016.

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