Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund (PIF) PIF, is reportedly in talks to invest in aspiring Tesla rival Lucid Motors Inc, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday.
A potential investment in the privately-held Lucid Motors presents the PIF an opportunity to own a controlling stake in an electric carmaker at a fraction of the cost of its rumored interest in Tesla.
The PIF and Lucid Motors have drawn up a term sheet under which PIF could invest more than $1 billion in Lucid Motors and obtain majority ownership, the sources told Reuters. The PIF already owns just shy of 5% of the carmaker, according to reports.
Based in Newark, California near Silicon Valley, Lucid Motors was founded in 2007 as Atieva by Bernard Tse, a former Tesla vice president and board member, and Sam Weng, a former exec at Oracle Corp and Redback Networks, Reuters notes. It received backing from Chinese investors, including tech entrepreneur Jia Yueting and state-owned automaker BAIC. Other venture capital backers have included Venrock, Mitsui & Co and Tsing Capital.
