SAN FRANCISCO _ Tesla Inc.'s shares leaped Tuesday after a tweet from Elon Musk's Twitter account said the chief executive was considering taking the financially struggling automaker private and has secured funding to do so.
The tweet said only: "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured."
Tesla shares were up about 6.7 percent at $366.76 around 1 p.m. EDT.
The tweet came shortly after the Financial Times newspaper reported that Saudi Arabia has taken a significant stake in Tesla. Because the purchase was made on the open market, the investment wouldn't produce new cash for the company.
Still, the investment _ said to be 3 percent to 5 percent of outstanding shares _ demonstrates Tssla's continuing ability to attract new investment despite its woes.
The company burned through more than $1.5 billion in cash in the year's first half, with $2.2 billion in cash remaining.
Musk said recently that the company's cash flow will be enough to fund the company going forward, but some analysts doubt Tesla's ability to post significant growth without new outside capital.
According to the Financial Times report, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund bought the shares sometime over the last several months, at a cost of around $1.7 billion.
The report said the state-run Public Investment Fund first approached Musk seeking to participate in a new issue of Tesla shares.
But Musk has said publicly he will not raise new equity or debt in 2018. The Saudi fund purchased the shares on the open market, which would have helped prop the stock price.
