Elon Musk has invested roughly $1 billion in David Ellison’s Skydance, Semafor reported Thursday — four years after the Hollywood mogul’s billionaire father helped finance Musk’s takeover of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The investment was reported just over two weeks after Skydance completed its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery — a deal that left the combined Hollywood giant with roughly $82.5 billion in debt as Ellison pursues billions in annual cost savings.
Skydance board member Laurene Powell Jobs and other backers made equity investments around the same time, according to the report.
The article did not specify the size of Musk’s ownership stake or whether he received a board seat or other governance rights.
The investment deepens Musk’s business ties to the family of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who has publicly described the Tesla boss as a close friend.
Ellison’s trust committed $1 billion to Musk’s 2022 takeover of Twitter — roughly matching the amount the billionaire is now reported to have invested in his son’s media empire.
The 82-year-old tech mogul also made a major investment in Tesla in 2018 and served on the electric-car maker’s board until 2022.
Larry Ellison and an associated trust guaranteed $45.72 billion in payments and other financial obligations tied to his son’s Warner Bros. Discovery takeover, which closed Oct. 6, according to securities filings.
Ellison also pledged shares in Oracle, Tesla and SpaceX, among other holdings, as collateral for bank loans used to help finance the acquisition, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The Warner deal added CNN, HBO and Warner Bros. to Skydance’s portfolio, which already included CBS and Paramount+.
The combined company would have carried about $82.5 billion in debt against $7.9 billion in cash as of June 30, according to financial statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Ellison is targeting at least $6 billion in annualized cost savings within three years of the Warner takeover.
Ellison has also touted the use of artificial intelligence to make productions more efficient, even as the company pledges to release at least 30 theatrical films annually and produce more than 180 television shows.
“We are a big believer that artificial intelligence is a tool for artists, not the other way around,” Ellison said in a CNBC interview earlier this month.
Billionaire cable mogul John Malone suggested Tuesday that Skydance could eventually strike a distribution deal with Musk’s Starlink satellite network, although no agreement has been announced.
“He’s gonna have to re-engineer all of those channels, and figure out how they morph into streams themselves rather than just traditional linear,” Malone said during an appearance at the Paley Center.
“I think there’s a deal coming there,” he added.
No Starlink distribution agreement or additional SpaceX investment has been confirmed.
Neither Musk nor Paramount immediately responded to The Post’s requests for comment.
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