The billionaire responded on Friday night to a suggestion that “Twitter should buy SVB and become a digital bank,” Min-Liang Tan, CEO of Razer, which sells gaming computers.
Musk the answer“I’m open to the idea.”
Others also showed their support. “I think Twitter could use a financial leg,” Mikael Pawlo, head of branding at Swedish fintech company Bokio, said. tweeted there. “It would make total sense for the entire Musk ecosystem to buy the ruins of SVB and also create a viable business model going forward for Twitter.”
“What a chance,” tweeted Kevin Paffrath, CEO of HouseHack, a real-estate and AI startup. “2-3 years to get a banking charter. Make sure you go through those toxic assets with a fine tooth comb.”
Musk, who helped start PayPal, took over Twitter for $44 billion in late October. They aim to add payments to the platform, which may help with the acquisition of SVB.
“Buying Twitter is an acceleration to make X, the whole app,” he said tweeted earlier in the month. China’s WeChat offers an example of such an app, which features payments in addition to messaging, streaming, and video chat, among others.
Twitter has applied for a regulatory license and created software to introduce payments on the platform, the Financial Times reported at the end of January.
Of course, not everyone is happy with the idea of Musk having another distraction. Investors in Tesla, in particular, have been frustrated by Musk’s focus on Twitter. Musk sold billions in Tesla stock to help finance his takeover of Twitter and has been busy reinventing the platform.
In December, Leo Koguan, one of Tesla’s largest individual shareholders called for a change in leadership, tweet: “Elon left Tesla and Tesla doesn’t have a working CEO. Tesla needs and deserves a full time CEO.
On Friday, the self-described Tesla investor shared the Twitter handle @sanssoli react Paffrath commented on the “opportunity” by writing, “And selling another $20 billion worth of Tesla stock. No thanks!”
Meanwhile, while Musk is thinking of becoming a banker, he might as well be a landlord. According to The Wall Street Journal, Musk plans to build his own city along the Colorado River outside of Austin, Texas. Workers at Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company will reportedly be able to live in new homes there at below-market rates.
Some of them, may be customers of Silicon Valley Bank, which has a branch nearby.
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