Lucid pumps $1.5B from Saudi wealth fund after CEO warned relying on its ‘bottomless wealth’ was ‘dangerous’

Saudi Arabia is committing even more money to Lucid Motors as the EV startup struggles to erase its losses. Lucid announced Monday as part of its second-quarter earnings report that an affiliate of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund is committing another $1.5 billion, with half coming in the form of a private placement and the other half as a loan facility.

The deal also further deepens the ties between Lucid and its majority owner, which has already committed to buying at least 50,000 of its EVs in the coming years, and is helping the company build a brand new factory in the Kingdom.

It’s the second time Lucid has turned to Saudi Arabia for more money since Lucid’s CEO Peter Rawlinson told the Financial Times in a March 2024 interview that he was wary of being over-reliant on the Kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund. “If I adopt a mindset that there is bottomless wealth from PIF, that is very dangerous, that is something I will never do, I respect them far too much for that,” he told the financial outlet.

The new funding comes as Lucid announced it lost $643 million in the second quarter of 2024, despite setting a new sales record for its electric luxury sedans that generated $200 million of revenue. Lucid reported it had $1.35 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of the second quarter.

Lucid doesn’t just need money to staunch the bleeding as it tries to carve out a market for its luxury sedan, the Air. It also needs capital to help with the upcoming launch of its first electric SUV, known as Gravity. Lucid has said the Gravity will enter production by the end of 2024 and has put its hopes on it becoming a success in North America given the popularity of the form factor in the region. The company laid off about 400 employees, or roughly 6% of its workforce, in May 2024 as part of a restructuring ahead of the launch of the Gravity SUV.