Elon Musk Puts About $1 Billion Into Skydance After Warner Deal
Elon Musk has invested roughly $1 billion in Skydance, the newly combined Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, Semafor reported.
Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, has invested roughly $1 billion in Skydance, the media giant formed when Paramount took over Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this month, Semafor reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The cash arrives as the newly merged company works to cut costs and shore up investor confidence after one of the largest media deals in years.
Neither Musk nor the company has confirmed the investment. Semafor said Musk and Paramount did not immediately respond to its requests for comment, a Skydance representative declined to comment to TheWrap, and Skydance did not immediately respond to TechCrunch.
What happened
According to Semafor, which first broke the story, Musk’s investment came together at around the same time as equity investments from other Skydance backers, including board member Laurene Powell Jobs, the philanthropist and founder of the Emerson Collective. Semafor described the money as a much-needed financial boost for a company trying to trim expenses and lift its share price.
Key details remain unknown. TheWrap reported that it is unclear whether Musk invested personally or through SpaceX, his rocket and satellite company, and that the structure of the investment and the size of any ownership stake have not been disclosed. Semafor had reported in September that the company was weighing an equity injection from Musk, who was one of several wealthy individuals considered as potential investors.
Why it matters
Skydance closed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on Oct. 6, bringing Warner Bros. studios, HBO and CNN under the same roof as Paramount Pictures and the CBS network. Outlets have described the deal’s size differently: TheWrap put it at $81 billion, which it said reflects Warner Bros. Discovery’s equity value, while TechCrunch called it a $110 billion acquisition, a figure that generally includes assumed debt. TheWrap said the takeover left the company with a substantial debt load.
The combined business, run by co-chief executives David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz, a former chief executive of toy maker Mattel, has pledged at least $6 billion in cost savings and other synergies within three years. The two executives must also merge the Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming services and manage a stable of cable networks that, according to TechCrunch, includes CNN, MTV, TBS, Comedy Central and Food Network.
Semafor suggested Ellison could use Musk’s capital to support both cost-cutting and technology spending. In an interview with CNBC in early October, Ellison said the company was “building a true product and tech team.”
The Ellison connection
The reported investment deepens long-standing financial ties between Musk and the Ellison family. Larry Ellison, the co-founder of software company Oracle and David Ellison’s father, invested $1 billion in Musk’s 2022 purchase of Twitter, now called X. He also invested in Tesla in 2018 and later served on the electric-car maker’s board.
Larry Ellison has been central to Skydance’s expansion as well. Semafor reported that he personally guaranteed more than $40 billion of the equity financing behind the Warner Bros. Discovery takeover. Musk has publicly praised the Ellisons, fueling speculation about a broader business relationship.
What comes next
Talk of a larger tie-up intensified this week after John Malone, the billionaire cable pioneer and former chair emeritus of Warner Bros. Discovery, spoke at a Paley Center media event. According to TheWrap, Malone predicted that SpaceX and Skydance could strike a deal involving $8 billion to $10 billion in cross-investment, along with a possible global content distribution partnership.
“I think there’s a deal coming there,” Malone said, adding that he would not be surprised to see an announcement “before very long.” He pointed to SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service as a possible distribution channel for the company’s television and streaming programming and argued that its traditional channels would need to be reworked to operate as streams rather than conventional linear TV. Malone also noted the history between the two families, asking: “Who helped Elon finance Twitter when he bought it? Larry Ellison.”
For now, there has been no confirmation of any broader SpaceX or Starlink partnership with Skydance, and the reported $1 billion stake has not been officially announced. Questions that remain open include:
- Whether the money came from Musk personally or from SpaceX
- How large a stake the investment represents and on what terms
- How much other investors, including Powell Jobs, contributed
- Whether a larger distribution or investment agreement will follow
Any formal disclosure from the company would likely clarify how much influence, if any, Musk will have at one of Hollywood’s biggest studios and the news networks it now controls.
