Prince Alwaleed bin Talal
The Saudi Arabian royal family have had an active stake in Twitter for years. A holding company held by the crown family have maintained their stake throughout the whole process of Musk’s acquisition, and like the other members of Twitter’s board of directors, they came out of the purchase with a fattened purse and a smile, knowing Musk overpaid for the platform’s declining stock price.
Anyway, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal reportedly put $1.89 billion into Musk’s investment, which amounted to a little under 35 million shares.
It’s unclear how much of a stake the Saudi Arabian royal family maintains with Twitter now that it’s a private company, though as Al Jazeera reported in October, the holding company will maintain its company shares in the Musk era as well. The company has been cited in investigations for allowing legions of accounts tied to the royal family to harass Saudi-critical journalists. The U.S. has alleged that at least two former Twitter employees had worked on the side for Saudi Arabia, passing the royal family information about Saudi dissidents. One of those former employees was convictedthis past August in U.S. federal court.
