NYT Says Musk Borrowed $500 Million From SpaceX, Tapped Firm to Aid Tesla, SolarCity

Elon Musk borrowed billions of won in his personal capacity from SpaceX, the aerospace company he runs, and also used the company’s funds to support affiliated businesses facing financial strain, the New York Times reported.

The newspaper said on April 24 that Musk borrowed a total of $500 million from SpaceX through three loans between 2018 and 2020, citing internal documents and accounts from people familiar with the matter.

The loans carried interest rates ranging from less than 1% to as much as 3%, well below the roughly 5% preferential rates offered by commercial banks at the time. They were secured by SpaceX stock and carried a 10-year repayment term.

Internal documents described the loans as specially arranged for the chief executive officer. They did not identify who approved them or how the money was used.

Musk repaid the full principal and $14 million in interest by late 2021, the report said.

He also tapped SpaceX when other companies he was involved with faced liquidity problems. During the 2008 global financial crisis, SpaceX provided $20 million to Tesla when the carmaker was near bankruptcy. In 2015, SpaceX invested $255 million by directly purchasing bonds issued by SolarCity, the solar company whose financial health had come under scrutiny. More recently, SpaceX acquired Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI.

The New York Times said Musk turned to SpaceX rather than banks when he needed large sums of money, criticizing him for effectively using the company as a piggy bank over the past two decades.

It was not the first time Musk linked funding and transactions across his companies. Bloomberg previously reported that SpaceX bought 1,279 Tesla Cybertrucks, helping support the automaker’s sales.

The report said that was possible in part because SpaceX remained privately held. With the company preparing for a stock-market listing in June, similar internal transactions stand to face tougher disclosure and oversight rules.

Shin Yong-hyun, Hankyung.com reporter yonghyun@hankyung.com