PIF, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund that Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk has said could help him fund a $72 billion deal to take his electric carmaker private, is in talks to invest in aspiring Tesla rival Lucid Motors Inc., sources said Sunday.
The talks between privately-held Lucid Motors and PIF underscore the latter's appetite to invest in electric carmakers to diversify the oil-rich Middle Eastern kingdom's investment portfolio.
A deal with Lucid Motors would also be more in line with PIF's limited resources — given that, despite its $250 billion in assets, PIF has already made substantial commitments to other technology companies or investments, including a $45-billion agreement to invest in a giant technology fund led by SoftBank Group Corp.