News
Tesla’s Elon Musk received commitments for $46.5 billion for Twitter acquisition attempt
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted that he has a “Plan B” just in case his initial acquisition attempt for Twitter does not succeed. A new securities filing published on Thursday appears to hint at what this “Plan B” could be.
As noted in a Schedule 13D filing, Musk is currently exploring a tender offer to purchase some or all Twitter stock directly from shareholders. The Tesla CEO noted that this new strategy was adopted partly because Twitter’s Board of Directors had not responded to his initial acquisition offer. What’s interesting, however, is that Musk has received commitments for $46.5 billion to help finance the potential deal.
The relevant section of the 13D filing follows:
“Twitter has not responded to the Proposal. Given the lack of response by Twitter, the Reporting Person is exploring whether to commence a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Common Stock (together with the associated rights issued pursuant to the Rights Agreement (the ‘Rights’ and, together with the Common Stock, the ‘Shares’)) that are issued and outstanding (and not held by the Reporting Person) at a price of $54.20 per share, net to the seller in cash, without interest and less any required withholding taxes, subject to certain conditions (the ‘Potential Offer’), but has not determined whether to do so at this time.
“To finance the Proposed Transaction or a Potential Offer, entities related to the Reporting Person have received commitment letters committing to provide an aggregate of approximately $46.5 billion as follows:
(i) A debt commitment letter, dated April 20, 2022 (the “Debt Commitment Letter”), from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc. and certain other financial institutions party thereto as commitment parties (collectively, the “Commitment Parties”) pursuant to which the Commitment Parties have committed to provide $13 billion in financing to the Reporting Person and related entities as follows: (a) a senior secured term loan facility in an aggregate principal amount of $6.5 billion, (b) a senior secured revolving facility in an aggregate committed amount of $500 million, (c) a senior secured bridge loan facility in an aggregate principal amount of up to $3 billion and (d) a senior unsecured bridge loan facility in an aggregate principal amount of up to $3 billion ((a) – (d) collectively, the “Debt Facilities”);
(ii) A separate debt commitment letter, dated April 20, 2022 (the “Margin Loan Commitment Letter”), from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc. and certain other financial institutions party thereto as commitment parties (collectively, the “Margin Loan Commitment Parties”) pursuant to which the Margin Loan Commitment Parties have committed to provide $12.5 billion in margin loans (the “Margin Loan Facility”), the proceeds of which will be distributed or otherwise made available to Purchaser; and
(iii) An equity commitment letter, dated April 20, 2022 (the “Equity Commitment Letter”), from the Reporting Person pursuant to which the Reporting Person has committed to provide equity financing for the Proposed Transaction or the Potential Offer sufficient to pay all amounts payable in connection with the Offer and the Merger (plus related fees and expenses), net of the amounts to be funded pursuant to the Debt Commitment Letter and the Margin Loan Commitment Letter, which is currently expected to be approximately $21 billion (the “Equity Financing”).
Musk caught headlines last week when he announced his intention to acquire Twitter for $54.20 a share in a deal worth about $43 billion. While the Twitter Board of Directors did not formally respond to Musk’s offer, the company adopted a “poison pill” strategy on Friday in what was viewed as an attempt to block a takeover by the Tesla CEO. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has expressed his support of Musk, even noting that the social media company has had a “dysfunction” for some time now.
Prior to his announcement of a proposed Twitter acquisition, Musk had purchased over 73 million shares of the social media company. By amassing a stake of over 9% in Twitter, Musk effectively became one of the company’s single largest shareholders. Twitter soon announced its plan to give Musk a seat on its Board of Directors on the condition that he could not own more than 14.9% of the company. The Tesla CEO declined the seat and issued his buyout proposal not long after.
Elon Musk’s latest filing can be viewed here.
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News
Tesla expands its branded ‘For Business’ Superchargers
Tesla has expanded its branded ‘For Business’ Supercharger program that it launched last year, as yet another company is using the platform to attract EV owners to its business and utilize a unique advertising opportunity.
Francis Energy of Oklahoma is launching four Superchargers in Norman, where the University of Oklahoma is located. The Superchargers, which are fitted with branding for Francis Energy, will officially open tomorrow.
It will not be the final Supercharger location that Francis Energy plans to open, the company confirmed to EVWire.
Back in early September, Tesla launched the new “Supercharger for Business” program in an effort to give businesses the ability to offer EV charging at custom rates. It would give their businesses visibility and would also cater to employees or customers.
“Purchase and install Superchargers at your business,” Tesla wrote on a page on its website for the new program. “Superchargers are compatible with all electric vehicles, bringing EV drivers to your business by offering convenient, reliable charging.”
The first site opened in Land O’ Lakes, Florida, which is Northeast of Tampa, as a company called Suncoast launched the Superchargers for local EV owners.
Tesla launches its new branded Supercharger for Business with first active station
The program also does a great job at expanding infrastructure for EV owners, which is something that needs to be done to encourage more people to purchase Teslas and other electric cars.
Francis Energy operates at least 14 EV charging locations in Oklahoma, spanning from Durant to Oklahoma City and nearly everywhere in between. Filings from the company, listed by Supercharge.info, show the company’s plans to convert some of them to Tesla Superchargers, potentially utilizing the new Supercharger for Business program to advertise.
Moving forward, more companies will likely utilize Tesla’s Supercharger for Business program as it presents major advantages in a variety of ways, especially with advertising and creating a place for EV drivers to gain range in their cars.
News
Tesla Cybercab ‘breakdown’ image likely is not what it seems
Tesla Cybercab is perhaps the most highly-anticipated project that the company plans to roll out this year, and as it is undergoing its testing phase in pre-production currently, there are some things to work through with it.
Over the weekend, an image of the Cybercab being loaded onto a tow truck started circulating on the internet, and people began to speculate as to what the issue could be.
Hmmmmmm… https://t.co/L5hWcOXQkb pic.twitter.com/OJBDyHNTMj
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) January 11, 2026
The Cybercab can clearly be seen with a Police Officer and perhaps the tow truck driver by its side, being loaded onto, or even potentially unloaded from, the truck.
However, it seems unlikely it was being offloaded, as its operation would get it to this point for testing to begin with.
It appears, at first glance, that it needs assistance getting back to wherever it came from; likely Gigafactory Texas or potentially a Bay Area facility.
The Cybercab was also spotted in Buffalo, New York, last week, potentially undergoing cold-weather testing, but it doesn’t appear that’s where this incident took place.
It is important to remember that the Cybercab is currently undergoing some rigorous testing scenarios, which include range tests and routine public road operation. These things help Tesla assess any potential issue the vehicle could run into after it starts routine production and heads to customers, or for the Robotaxi platform operation.
This is not a one-off issue, either. Tesla had some instances with the Semi where it was seen broken down on the side of a highway three years ago. The all-electric Semi has gone on to be successful in its early pilot program, as companies like Frito-Lay and PepsiCo. have had very positive remarks.
The Cybercab’s future is bright, and it is important to note that no vehicle model has ever gone its full life without a breakdown. It happens, it’s a car.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that there has been no official word on what happened with this particular Cybercab unit, but it is crucial to remember that this is the pre-production testing phase, and these things are more constructive than anything.
Investor's Corner
Tesla analyst teases self-driving dominance in new note: ‘It’s not even close’
Tesla analyst Andrew Percoco of Morgan Stanley teased the company’s dominance in its self-driving initiative, stating that its lead over competitors is “not even close.”
Percoco recently overtook coverage of Tesla stock from Adam Jonas, who had covered the company at Morgan Stanley for years. Percoco is handling Tesla now that Jonas is covering embodied AI stocks and no longer automotive.
His first move after grabbing coverage was to adjust the price target from $410 to $425, as well as the rating from ‘Overweight’ to ‘Equal Weight.’
Percoco’s new note regarding Tesla highlights the company’s extensive lead in self-driving and autonomy projects, something that it has plenty of competition in, but has established its prowess over the past few years.
He writes:
“It’s not even close. Tesla continues to lead in autonomous driving, even as Nvidia rolls out new technology aimed at helping other automakers build driverless systems.”
Percoco’s main point regarding Tesla’s advantage is the company’s ability to collect large amounts of training data through its massive fleet, as millions of cars are driving throughout the world and gathering millions of miles of vehicle behavior on the road.
This is the main point that Percoco makes regarding Tesla’s lead in the entire autonomy sector: data is King, and Tesla has the most of it.
One big story that has hit the news over the past week is that of NVIDIA and its own self-driving suite, called Alpamayo. NVIDIA launched this open-source AI program last week, but it differs from Tesla’s in a significant fashion, especially from a hardware perspective, as it plans to use a combination of LiDAR, Radar, and Vision (Cameras) to operate.
Percoco said that NVIDIA’s announcement does not impact Morgan Stanley’s long-term opinions on Tesla and its strength or prowess in self-driving.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang commends Tesla’s Elon Musk for early belief
And, for what it’s worth, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang even said some remarkable things about Tesla following the launch of Alpamayo:
“I think the Tesla stack is the most advanced autonomous vehicle stack in the world. I’m fairly certain they were already using end-to-end AI. Whether their AI did reasoning or not is somewhat secondary to that first part.”
Percoco reiterated both the $425 price target and the ‘Equal Weight’ rating on Tesla shares.