Elon Musk has invested approximately 1 billion dollars in Skydance, according to a report from Semafor first carried by TechCrunch on Thursday and reported independently by Reuters the same day, citing CNBC and a person familiar with the matter. Representatives for Skydance and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment from either outlet.
The investment lands weeks after Paramount completed its 110 billion dollar acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, creating the combined company named Skydance. Co-chief executives David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz, the former Mattel chief executive named last month, are tasked with bringing together Paramount+ and HBO Max and a network portfolio that includes CBS, CNN, MTV, TBS, Comedy Central and Food Network.
Semafor reported that Musk’s investment was made around the same time as equity contributions from other Skydance investors, including board member Laurene Powell Jobs, and that it forms part of a wider effort by Skydance to raise equity investments. The company has committed to reducing costs by 6 billion dollars over the next three years, and the report describes the money as a financial boost as it seeks to cut costs and lift its stock price.
The relationship runs through the Ellison family. Larry Ellison, Oracle’s co-founder and David Ellison’s father, invested 1 billion dollars to help Musk purchase Twitter in 2022, served alongside him after joining Tesla’s board in 2018, and personally guaranteed more than 40 billion dollars of equity financing when Paramount offered to buy Warner Bros. Musk’s matching 1 billion dollars is the reciprocal move, and it puts the owner of X inside the shareholder base of a company that now controls CNN and CBS News.