Musk Says SoftBank Chose WeWork Over a $12B Tesla Stake

Elon Musk says SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son passed up a chance to invest US$12 billion in Tesla for a 25% stake to help take the company private, choosing WeWork instead.

The Tesla CEO made the November 11 comment in reply to a post by Katie Miller, who wrote “Taps the sign” while quoting WSJ Business News on SoftBank’s gas-turbine losses.

The Wall Street Journal reported that SoftBank had reserved more than 13 gigawatts of turbines for gas-fired power plants, equivalent to more than six Hoover Dams, but ended up with more than it needed and cancelled reservations.

SoftBank’s own November 10 financial results explain how it lost the money. Its Silver Bands 7 subsidiary paid in advance to secure factory capacity and power-generation equipment for U.S. AI data-centre projects. After changing its procurement plans, SoftBank booked a US$3.73 billion loss: US$2.85 billion in non-refundable advance payments, plus US$880 million from contract modifications and settlements.

SoftBank also secured conditional rights to as much as US$2.1 billion in rebates on future equipment purchases over the next 10 years. It did not record those rights as an asset because the amount was not yet determined.

Musk used the discussion to revisit Son’s earlier investment choice. His verdict on the WeWork decision was blunt: “That was dumb.”

Musk did not say when the proposed Tesla investment was discussed or share documents showing its terms. The US$12 billion figure and quarter-company stake are his account of the opportunity, rather than a newly announced transaction.

A stake that large would have made Son a major Tesla shareholder at a time when Musk says he was looking for support to take the automaker off the stock market.

A reminder of Tesla’s take-private saga

Musk’s most public attempt to take Tesla private came in August 2018, when his “funding secured” post set off a prolonged legal and regulatory fight. The plan did not go ahead, and Tesla remained publicly traded.

Later court filings offered a closer look at Musk’s discussions with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. Those discussions form part of the history around Tesla’s attempted buyout, although Musk’s latest comment does not establish when the separate Son conversation took place.

WeWork, meanwhile, went through a major financial reset. The workspace company says it emerged from Chapter 11 in June 2024 after a restructuring that eliminated more than US$4 billion in debt.

Musk’s latest remark adds another detail to his account of the investors he approached. It also raises a sizeable what-if for Tesla: how different might its ownership have looked with SoftBank holding a quarter of the company?