Who and what exactly is invested in Elon Musk’s X Holdings, the company behind the X platform and X.ai, will soon become a question from public record.
In a ruling on Tuesday, a federal judge in California ruled that a detailed disclosure statement from X Holdings should be released, effectively lifting the curtain and revealing the list of shareholders of the parent company of X (formerly Twitter) and X.ai, an AI startup Musk founded in 2023. Musk acquired Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion, took the company private and laid off about three-quarters of its workforce.
A group of former Twitter employees sued X last year to pay them arbitration fees they incurred as a result of disputes with their former employer. Jacob Silverman, a freelance journalist, intervened in the case with the support of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to obtain disclosure of the records.
While Musk and X’s lawyers argued that “as part of its usual practice and business policy, X Holdings does not publish or make publicly available information about its owners/shareholders and treats such information as confidential,” the judge was not swayed by an alleged need for secrecy.
“Here, the defendants have put forward little more than conjecture to support their position,” the judge wrote. “The disclosure statement contains no scandalous information or trade secrets. Based on the documents before it, the court cannot see any factual basis for keeping the disclosure secret.”
Several investors in X Holdings were reported at the time of Musk’s acquisition, including Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, who injected over $1 billion worth of Twitter stock into the company, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, and Silicon Valley VCs Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. But Musk never released a full breakdown of investors or the company’s structure. X Holdings now has until September 4 to file the document with the court.
Silverman said he decided to intervene in the case because “it is important for the public to know who owns the platform, who might have influence over its management, and who Musk owes.”
“It’s simply about transparency, disclosure and free expression – on behalf of the public and the users of X,” Silverman added.
X did not respond to a request for comment.
Are you an X employee or someone who would like to share insights or tips? Contact Kali Hays securely via signal at +1-949-280-0267 or [email protected].
