Elon Musk - latest: Tesla boss ‘will become Twitter CEO when deal is complete’ as billionaires throw cash behind takeover

Mr Musk has claimed to be a free speech absolutist but countries such as Qatar have been criticised for their repressive laws.

“Qatar already has a host of repressive laws, but this new legislation deals another bitter blow to freedom of expression in the country and is a blatant breach of international human rights law,” said Lynn Maalouf, Research Director for the Middle East at Amnesty International, of a law passed in 2020 that authorizes the imprisonment of “anyone who broadcasts, publishes, or republishes false or biased rumours, statements, or news, or inflammatory propaganda, domestically or abroad, with the intent to harm national interests, stir up public opinion, or infringe on the social system or the public system of the state”.

Amnesty has also been criticial of Saudi Arabia, pointing out that activists remain behind bars for exercising their right to free expression while authorities have carried out amputations, including ‘cross amputations’ on people found guilty of robbery.

Mr Musk is also said to be engaging with certain additional existing shareholders including Twitter co-founder and former chief executive Jack Dorsey, who may roll over his shares

Prince Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud of Saudi Arabia has also committed to providing nearly 35 million shares in Twitter to retain a stake following the company’s takeover by Mr Musk.

This is despite previously criticising Mr Musk’s takeover.

"I don't believe that the proposed offer by Elon Musk ($54.20 per share) comes close to the intrinsic value of Twitter given its growth prospects," the prince said in a Twitter post on 14 April.

Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is providing $1 billion. Sequoia has is providing $800 million. VyCapital is providing $700 million, while Binance financed $500 million and Andreessen Horowitz has invested $400 million.

A new Securities and Exchange Commission filing provides some insight into how Mr Musk will be purchasing Twitter.

Funders include Binance and the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Asked what he made of Elon Musk’s purchasing of Twitter, Mr Gates said: “You know, Elon, I guess it’s possible Twitter could be worse. But it also could be better… So I have a wait and see attitude.”

Bill Gates used to be the world’s richest person. That title is now held by Elon Musk. The two men, however, don’t get on.

Last week, Elon Musk accused Bill Gates of “shorting” Tesla stock - tweeting an image of Bill Gates as a pregnant man.

But in a new interview with the BBC, Mr Gates says that there’s “no need for him to be nice to me”.

Asked specifically about whether he had bet against Tesla, Mr Gates said that it “has nothing to do with climate change. I have ways of diversifying” and pushed back against the claim that shorting Tesla was damaging to the environment.

“The popularity of electric cars will lead to more competition for selling those cars. So there’s a difference between electric cars being adopted, and companies becoming infinitely valuable.”

Elon Musk’s buyout of Twitter is reportedly being reviewed by the US Federal Trade Commission.

The agency will decide in the next month whether to do an in-depth assessment of the deal, but experts have suggested there’s little likelihood the deal will be found illegal.

The FTC is already investigating Musk’s initial purchase of a nine per cent stake in Twitter and whether an antitrust reporting requirement was met when he acquired the shares in early April.

The Open Markets Institute has said that the deal should be stopped to avoid giving an the multibillionaire “direct control over one of the world’s most important platforms for public communications and debate.”

It also cited Musk’s ownership of the satellite communications company Starlink as a concern.

Elon Musk’s post about NFTs briefly sent a Bored Ape token soaring - before he tweeted mocking the images.

The Tesla chief executive also recently took a shot at NFT buyers, changing his Twitter picture to a compilation of numerous Bored Ape images.