The company announced in a regulatory filing on Monday morning that Ayar Third Investment, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, had agreed to buy $1 billion worth of Lucid shares, which would add to the Kingdom’s existing stake of about 60%.
The new investment comes just weeks after Lucid told investors it plans to build about 9,000 of its Air electric cars this year, a slight increase from last year’s production. It lost $2. 8 billion in 2023 and ended the year with just under $1. 4 billion in money. and monetary equivalents.
The company has struggled to find buyers willing to sell its beloved Air sedan and has slashed prices several times in recent months in a bid to boost sales. Lucid also plans to start building its Gravity electric SUV later this year.
Lucid announced the investment less than three weeks after chief executive Peter Rawlinson told the Financial Times that he feared relying too heavily on Saudi Arabia to keep putting cash in his proverbial furnace. “If I adopt the mindset that the PIF bestows infinite wealth, it’s very dangerous, it’s something I’ll never do, I respect them too much for that,” Rawlinson said at the time.