Elon Musk Reportedly Bets Big on Skydance, the New Hollywood Giant Behind Warner Bros. And Paramount

Hollywood’s newest media empire has barely gotten off the ground, and it’s already attracting some very famous money. Skydance, the company formed when Paramount completed its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, now controls 2 of the most storied studios in the business, along with Paramount+, HBO Max, CBS and CNN. On Tuesday, October 6, the roughly $110 billion deal officially closed, with Skydance shares beginning to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SKYD.

The path to get there was anything but smooth. 12 states sued to block the merger on antitrust grounds before a federal judge approved a settlement, and the deal was ultimately backed by $47 billion in new equity led by the Ellison family, RedBird Capital and the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. David Ellison serves as chairman and CEO, while former Mattel chief Ynon Kreiz has joined as co-CEO to handle day-to-day operations.

Now, a familiar tech billionaire has reportedly joined the party. According to an exclusive report from Semafor, Elon Musk has invested roughly $1 billion in Skydance, providing a much-needed financial boost as the company works to cut costs and support its stock price. CNBC later backed up the report through a person familiar with the matter.

Musk’s investment reportedly came together around the same time as equity commitments from other Skydance backers, including board member Laurene Powell Jobs. Semafor had previously reported in September that Paramount was weighing a request for an equity investment from Musk, who was among several wealthy individuals Ellison considered bringing on board.

The connection isn’t exactly surprising. Musk has a long-standing bond with David Ellison’s father, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who invested $1 billion in Musk’s 2022 deal to take Twitter, now X, private. The elder Ellison has also contributed capital to Tesla and previously sat on its board.

Larry Ellison played a massive role in making the Warner Bros. takeover happen, personally guaranteeing more than $40 billion of the equity financing. Musk’s reported investment looks like the latest chapter in that close financial relationship.

The new company is carrying a heavy load. Skydance faces a debt burden of nearly $80 billion while targeting $6 billion in cost savings over the next 3 years. In their “Day 1” memo to staff, Ellison and Kreiz warned that the merger would bring difficult decisions affecting the workforce.

Those changes are already hitting the film side of the business. Warner Bros. film chiefs Pamela Abdy and Michael De Luca were dismissed as the deal closed, with Skydance executives Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein now overseeing every film label at the combined company. DC’s ‘Clayface’, which opened this weekend, is the first Warner Bros. movie released under Skydance’s ownership.

Still, Musk’s check may only go so far. Deadline noted that Skydance would need far more than $1 billion to make a real dent in its finances, and the stock reaction was lukewarm, swinging from a roughly 6% gain to a loss after the report surfaced. Neither Musk nor Skydance responded to Semafor’s requests for comment, so the investment has not been publicly confirmed.

Some industry veterans think this is just the beginning. Media mogul John Malone, speaking at the Paley Center International Council Summit, predicted that Musk’s rocket company SpaceX could invest between $8 billion and $10 billion in Skydance to help pay down its debt. Such a deal could also give SpaceX’s Starlink an inside track on buying broadcast spectrum.

For now, the reported investment ties one of the world’s most talked-about billionaires to the studios behind some of entertainment’s biggest franchises. How that relationship shapes the future of Warner Bros., Paramount and HBO remains to be seen.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments!