When Elon Musk bought Twitter in late 2022, he didn’t foot the $44 billion price tag alone. A pool of X investors pitched in to take the company private.
In doing so, Musk freed Twitter (now X) from public reporting requirements—including disclosures about its financial backers.
This decision allowed some investors to remain in the shadows. However, tech journalist Jacob Silverman, backed by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, petitioned to have X’s financial disclosures unsealed. In late August, a California court sided with Silverman, ordering Twitter/X investor list and financial structure and revealed.
X Investor List: Familiar Faces and Surprising Appearances
Some X investors are already known, including Binance Capital Management, the investment arm of the embattled Binance cryptocurrency exchange. Allegations against Binance include inadequate “Know Your Customer” and “Anti-Money Laundering” protocols. Critics say these gaps led to the platform being exploited by extremist groups.
Binance Capital Management, the investment arm of Binance, also drew attention due to its ties to the Binance exchange. which faced a series of legal troubles in the United States, culminating in a full-stop ban as part of a settlement with regulators.
The unsealed document also named well-known venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz and ARK Venture Private Holdings as X investors. ARK has a track record of investing in Musk-backed companies, with the fund’s Chief Investment Officer, Cathie Wood, calling Elon Musk the “inventor of our generation,” and “a Renaissance man.” ARK is a big investor in Tesla, SpaceX and Musk’s more nascent venture, xAI.
Perhaps a less surprising name of the list is Twitter/X’s cofounder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, continues to hold a stake in the company. Though Dorsey could have cashed out during Musk’s buyout of the company, he chose to hold onto his stake, according to SEC filings.
Despite his public distancing from the platform and his focus on other ventures like Block, Dorsey’s presence through entities like Jack Dorsey Remainder LLC and his revocable trust suggests that his involvement with X has not completely faded. Though Dorsey and Musk reportedly had significant disagreements with how Twitter around the time of the handoff, relations between the two billionaires seem to have thawed, as Dorsey recently praised X as “freedom technology.”
Yet, the list also included some unexpected names — some with ties to controversial parties.
Among them: Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, the American rapper and entrepreneur, appeared on the X investor list through his firm, Sean Combs Capital.
Combs, currently facing multiple lawsuits for sexual abuse and violence against women, also became embroiled in a legal investigation into a sex-trafficking ring.
Foreign X Investors
One notable investor: Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, founder of the investment firm Kingdom Holding. The prince, with a net worth of $15.7 billion, is not only invested in X, but also in Musk’s xAI—a venture designed to compete with OpenAI. Prince Alwaleed has been linked to corruption allegations in Saudi Arabia, but after a settlement. He denies any wrongdoing.
Among the more troubling names on the list were two Russian oligarchs tied to the venture capital firm 8VC.
One of those, Vadim Moszkowicz, is now part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. Moszkowicz’s stake raises questions, particularly considering Musk’s mixed stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, where he first provided Starlink internet access to Ukraine before cutting off services in the Crimean region.
Another 8VC investor, Denis Aven, comes from a powerful Russian banking family. His father, Petr Aven, is the head of Alfa Group and serves as the , which has been sanctioned by multiple Western governments.
Denis Aven’s role at 8VC has led to speculation that venture capital firms may serve as fronts for Russian nationals seeking to infiltrate Silicon Valley, potentially gaining access to sensitive data. Moreover, concerns over Russian influence over mass media channels to sway public sentiment are bolstered by the revelation of Kremlin-affiliated investors.
The nation of Qatar’s became an X investor through Q Tetris Holding, a company connected to the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). The QIA is a sovereign wealth fund that has nearly half a trillion dollars of assets under management.
Chinese nationals Linda Ye and Robin Ren, founders of the Linda Ye and Robin Ren Family Foundation, were also named among the investors. Ren, a former Tesla executive, and his wife did not respond to inquiries regarding their goals in owning shares of X.
These revelations about X’s investors invite deeper scrutiny into the motivations behind these financial contributions and what they may mean for the future of the platform.
