Elon Musk has invested about $1 billion in fellow billionaire David Ellison’s entertainment conglomerate Skydance, pledging the cash as the company faces a massive debt load following its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Photo by Marc Piasecki/Getty Images
Key Takeaways
- Musk’s investment, reported by multiple outlets, is part of Skydance’s plan to secure large equity investments.
- Musk’s investment comes around the same time as Skydance investors including board member Lauren Powell Jobs also made equity investments in the company, unnamed people familiar with the matter told Semafor.
- The $1 billion injection comes as Skydance plans to make layoffs following its WBD acquisition and hopes to generate over $6 billion in cost savings.
- Skydance is staring down roughly $80 billion in debt that it plans to tackle through layoffs, streamlining of its operations and finding new opportunities for profit.
Musk Returns The Favor
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, David’s father, made a $1 billion equity investment to help Musk finance his takeover of Twitter in 2022. Ellison was also on Tesla’s board of directors from 2018 to 2022. Larry Ellison has described himself as a close friend to Musk.
Tangent
Skydance’s stock is down 23% in the last month, with much of the slide coming after its acquisition of WBD was announced. Shares traded around the $13 mark at the start of 2026 and now sit near $8.
Forbes Valuation
We estimate Musk’s net worth at $909 billion, making him the wealthiest person in the world and well ahead of Larry Ellison ($165.5 billion), though the figure is more than $500 billion lower than Musk’s all-time high net worth of $1.45 trillion shortly after SpaceX’s June initial public offering.
Key Background
Skydance closed its acquisition of WBD early this month following legal challenges from a dozen state attorneys general and an intense bidding war against Netflix, which sought WBD’s TV and cable networks while Skydance offered an all-cash bid to buy the entire WBD company. Netflix initially led the bidding process but was topped by Skydance’s $111 billion offer, with Netflix co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters saying WBD “was always a ‘nice to have’ at the right price, not a ‘must have’ at any price.” Skydance now owns assets including CNN, HBO, CBS, DC Studios, TNT Sports and Paramount+.
Want to see more Forbes articles on your feed? Tap here to make Forbes Australia a preferred source on Google.
Look back on the week that was with hand-picked articles from Australia and around the world. Sign up to the Forbes Australia newsletter here or become a member here.
