Elon Musk still wants Twitter—and he now has $46.5 billion in financing

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Elon Musk is continuing his pursuit of Twitter. In an SEC filing [PDF] Thursday, Musk revealed that he has $46.5 billion in financing lined up to close the deal. The Tesla and SpaceX founder would cover $21 billion of the purchase price himself. A consortium of banks will loan him $12.5 billion against his shares of Tesla along with an additional $13 billion in financing.

Musk surprised just about everyone last week with an unsolicited offer of $43 billion for Twitter. The move came after he quietly purchased 9.2 percent of outstanding Twitter shares. He then rejected an offer to sit on the company’s board, so he could buy even more shares.

Musk’s vision for the social media site appears to be one largely unencumbered by moderation. “I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe,” Musk wrote to Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor last week. “I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.”