Elon Musk Takes $1 Billion Stake in the Company That Now Owns CNN and CBS News

Elon Musk now holds a piece of CNN and CBS News after putting roughly $1 billion into David Ellison’s growing media empire, a deal that has rattled the liberal corporate press.

According to Semafor, Musk bought into the newly formed parent company of both networks. The deal places one of CNN’s harshest critics inside the ownership of the left-wing network he has spent years attacking.

The investment comes after Skydance’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. That gives Musk a stake in a huge collection of news and entertainment brands, including CNN, CBS, HBO, Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon.

For CNN, it is a striking turnaround. Musk is no longer just an adversary on the outside. He now has money in the company that owns the network.

Skydance closed its purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery on October 6. That put CNN under CEO David Ellison, son of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, who is an ally of President Donald Trump. Semafor reported that Musk then put about $1 billion into the newly merged company.

The size of his ownership stake hasn’t been disclosed. It also isn’t clear whether the investment comes with a seat on the board.

So far there is no sign that Musk will have any editorial control over CNN or CBS. Still, the deal adds a leading critic of CNN’s left-wing bias to the financial backers of its parent company. It is also a major expansion of Musk’s media holdings beyond X.

The deal also strengthens a powerful partnership between Musk and the Ellison family.

In 2022, Larry Ellison pledged $1 billion toward Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter. He also bought a large stake in Tesla in 2018 and sat on the carmaker’s board until 2022.

Now Musk is returning the favor with a billion-dollar investment of his own as David Ellison builds a massive media operation. The relationship ties Musk’s business empire, including Tesla and SpaceX, to the family that now runs two of the country’s largest television news organizations.

Musk is coming in just as the newly combined company faces a huge debt load. Financial filings cited by Variety put that debt at about $82.5 billion.

Ellison has laid out plans to cut at least $6 billion in costs each year over the next three years, which points to major financial changes across the enlarged company.

Neither Musk nor Skydance has commented publicly on the reported investment.

How much influence Musk’s billion dollars will buy remains an open question, since any board role or say in editorial decisions hasn’t been disclosed. What has changed is where he stands: one of CNN’s most vocal critics now holds an indirect stake in the media empire that owns it.