The list includes a mix of high-profile investors and tech industry stalwarts.
In response to a court order, Elon Musk’s company X has disclosed the full list of shareholders as of June 2023.
The list includes a mix of high-profile investors and tech industry stalwarts who have backed Musk’s venture to privatize the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Prominent venture capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Sequoia Capital are among the investors; they had all previously backed Musk’s acquisition.
Binance on List of X Shareholders
The list also includes cryptocurrency behemoth Binance and co-founder of Oracle Larry Ellison, demonstrating the wide range of financial support for Musk’s endeavors.
Remarkably, the list also includes Sean “Diddy” Combs through Sean Combs Capital, whose involvement was not as well-known prior to a Daily Mail report.
The Pershing Square Foundation investment made by activist investor Bill Ackman, who is well-known for criticizing Ivy League institutional practices, adds to the intrigue.
Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC, a company purportedly connected to Russian oligarchs, is another notable name.
Notable investors include Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, and Alwaleed bin Talal al Saud, the prince of Saudi Arabia, who converted their initial Twitter investments into shares in X after Musk’s takeover.
Elon Musk has complied after all and provided a list of X Holding Corp shareholders who helped the billionaire buy Twitter. And who do you think turned out to be the investors of the X platform? That's right, Petr Aven and Vadim Moshkovich. Now it is absolutely obvious where Musk… pic.twitter.com/qGE3p7FATk
— Denis Danilov (@DenisDanilovL) August 24, 2024
Officially recorded in a court filing on June 9, 2023, the details of this shareholder list were only made public this week as a result of a legal motion filed by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, which was supporting journalist Jacob Silverman.
In a blog post, Silverman highlighted that while many backers were already known, the newly released list provides crucial insights without disclosing specific ownership stakes.
For journalists, researchers, regulators, activists, and anybody else who wants to know what goes on behind the scenes of this significant company, he described it as “a great starting point.”
Binance Eyes Global Expansion
In May, the Financial Intelligence Unit of India (FIU-IND) revealed that Binance has successfully registered with the regulatory body, returning to the country after some regulatory hurdles.
Prior to that, the exchange announced that it had obtained a license from Dubai’s regulator, VARA, enabling the platform to cater to retail clients along with qualified and institutional ones.
Bloomberg reports that as part of the licensing process, Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of Binance, had to give up his voting control over the Dubai unit.
Furthermore, earlier this year, Binance unveiled its joint venture crypto exchange Binance Thailand, which comes in collaboration with Gulf Innova, a subsidiary of Gulf Energy Development.
With Thai baht trading pairs, Binance Thailand, also known as Binance TH, offers a platform for digital asset exchange services.
It is noteworthy that Binance has been subject to heightened regulatory scrutiny on a global scale.
The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) accused Binance of running an unauthorized digital asset derivatives exchange and breaking federal laws last year.
Similarly, the US Securities and Exchange Commission charged Binance Holdings LTD and ex-CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) for allegedly operating unregistered exchanges, broker exchanges, clearing houses, and the unregistered offer and sale of securities.