Wealthy Chinese investors tacitly fill up with tens of millions of dollars in private companies that are controlled by Elon Musk with an agreement that protects their identity from a public perspective.
Since musk was appointed as an important figure in US President Donald Trump by the US government to redesign the US government. China has promoted the couple’s wealth manager as tempting to raise the capital of rich Chinese. The money in Musks does not flow public companies such as Xai, Neuralink and SpaceX, the most valuable private company in the world.
The investments are used by opaque structures that are known as special vehicles that have the advantage of hiding the identity of investors in order to avoid the anger of the US authorities and companies that are cautious during a Nadir in the relationship between the two countries before Chinese capital.
Wealth managers behind the shops have informed investors that companies were specially developed for avoiding disclosure.
The use of special vehicles in financing is the order of the day and the agreements have nothing illegal. Nevertheless, this raises concerns about the potential for inappropriate influence and conflicts of interest at a time when Musk is involved in US politics, politics and business.
“How can someone in Musk’s position have so many connections to China, but still be a good person to reform the US government?” Said Derek Scissors, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. The influx of Chinese money in Musk’s business empire “contributes to this picture that it is more interested in his reputation and brand in China than in American interests.
The impermeable nature of the structures makes it difficult to evaluate the full scope of Chinese capital that flows private activities in Musk. But three asset managers supported by China informed the Financial Times that they had sold Chinese investors in the past two years who had sold shares of more than $ 30 million to SpaceX, XAI and Neuralink, three private company companies that have been rated with musk.
Overall, SpaceX has collected more than $ 10 billion from investors around the world since 2002 in 2002.
The Expand of the Chinese capital In Musk’s Business Empire, primary profit -oriented is and, according to people who are involved in the transactions, has little to do with technology transfer or influence public order.
With a sluggish domestic economy, wealthy Chinese Search for investment opportunities abroad.
However, the structure means that Chinese investors, if at all, only receive limited information about the financial data and the service of the company, in contrast to the details that are shared with main investors.
While Musk enjoys a warm relationship with Beijing, it was difficult for the company to make direct investments from China, financial advisors said. Beijing Security Hawks criticized SpaceX because of its connections to the US military.
“It is not easy for Chinese companies to invest in a prominent American high-tech company such as SpaceX,” said Kevin Chen, chief economist by Horizon Financial, a financial advisory group based in New York. “Chinese money is not welcome in many sectors.”
Representatives of Musk, SpaceX, XAI and Neuralink did not respond to repeated inquiries about comments.
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of Chinese investors were prepared for a webinar to hear a representative of Homaer Financial, an asset manager in East China, the opportunity to invest in SpaceX for only $ 200,000 per person.
The Homaer officer said that she expected SpaceX’s evaluation within three years to almost three times to $ 1.1, which, in some cases, even “in times of need” thanks to the “comprehensive” support of the US government and the military, which continued to provide the procurement orders to the space technology company.
China’s wealthy began in the late 2010s to finance Musk’s private activities when the founder of Tesla began building an electric vehicle factory in Shanghai in 2019 to use the country’s efficient and inexpensive supply chains.
The early investments paid off. Homaer said in a social media post in October that a group of its customers invested in SpaceX in SpaceX in June 2018 and invested six years later.
An investor in Homaer confirmed the number and added that he regretted not investing. “I knew Musk was a good businessman,” he said. “But I hadn’t expected it to be so successful within such a short time frame.”
Homaer has started three funds in the past two years to invest in SpaceX and has been able to achieve his capital procurement goals within a few weeks, said one person with knowledge of the matter.
When Beijing imposed restrictions on private companies – including the cancellation Jack Ma’s ants group IPO And the requirement of the hailt group Didi Global in the USA value of Musk’s activities continued to grow.
“I have more confidence in Muschus than most Chinese start-up entrepreneurs who have difficulty dealing with an increasingly state-dominated economy,” said an investor who bought shares in SpaceX over Homaer last year.
Some Chinese have paid a price for having bought them openly at Mousk’s activities. Leo Group, a Chinese company, made headlines in 2021 when there were plans to invest $ 50 million in SpaceX via Tomales Bay Capital, a private equity funds based in California. Less than a week later, the US partner of Leo revoked the transaction and quoted SpaceX’s complaints in the public disclosure of the Chinese share after a later legal dispute between the two companies.
In response to this, Chinese turned to special vehicles. Asset Manager Pool Investors Fund in a company registered by Cayman Islands that invests the money in the USA-based funds that are managed by western private equity companies that are already existing investors in Musks.
The presence of the Chinese means is not visible in public records of the stocks.
A person near Homaer said that the company asked its US partners if they accepted Chinese money. As a rule, the US partner must also liquidate investments in extreme scenarios such as a military conflict between the two countries.
“There are risks because we are not sure how bad relationships between the USA and China will be in the next few years,” said the person.
The uncertainty has not prevented wealthy Chinese from taking the business. While the strict capital controls of Beijing to the Chinese investors of Musk are limited to people with foreign bank accounts, some asset managers have found options to overcome the barrier.
“China is exposed to capital and a lack of high -quality projects,” said a New York investment manager who wants to raise capital from China for such investments. “We fit here.”
