David Ellison, co-CEO of Skydance Corp., and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Kent Nishimura | AFP | Getty Images
Elon Musk has made an investment in Skydance of roughly $1 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
The financial injection comes as the company looks to cut costs. Paramount closed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on Oct. 6, naming the combined entity Skydance. Co-CEOs David Ellison and Ynon Kreiz are tasked with merging two major film studios in Paramount and Warner Bros., two popular streaming platforms — Paramount+ and HBO Max — and a host of corporate functions to support a portfolio of TV networks and two news divisions.
Skydance has said it expects to see $6 billion in cost savings over three years, though it faces a debt burden of nearly $80 billion.
Musk’s commitment is part of a wider effort by Skydance to raise equity investments, according to Semafor, which first reported the news Thursday. Representatives for Musk and Skydance did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.
Shares of Skydance were down about 1% Thursday.
Ellison’s father, Larry Ellison, has a history with Musk. The Oracle co-founder invested $1 billion in Musk’s 2022 deal to purchase Twitter, now called X. Larry Ellison also invested in Tesla in 2018 and served on the company’s board of directors.
The elder Ellison also personally guaranteed more than $40 billion of equity financing in Paramount’s offer to take over WBD.
