Elon Musk to Nicolai Tangen: «Did you send my text messages to the press?»

Norway’s Wealth Fund has released Elon Musk’s text messages to CEO Nicolai Tangen. The messages shows Musk pressuring Tangen regarding the compensation package that the Wealth Fund had voted against.

CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, Nicolai Tangen. and Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk. Foto: Brendan McDermid/Reuters and Chip Somodevilla/Reuters - NTB.

«When I ask you for a favor, which I very rarely do, and you decline, then you should not ask me for one until you’ve done something above nothing to make amends», Elon Musk wrote to Nicolai Tangen in October.

Tangen is the Chief Executive Officer of Norway’s $1.8 trillion Wealth Fund, also called the Norwegian oil fund. It is the world's largest sovereign wealth fund.

«Friends are as friends do», Musk added.

Tangen replied:

«Noted and fully understand. As a large shareholder we cheer for you. Good luck with everything».

«Did you send my text messages to the press?»

The text messages came after Musk declined Nicolai Tangen's invitation in October to attend Norway Wealth Fund's investment conference.

On Thursday, October 17, E24 published an article stating that Musk had canceled a dinner associated with the Norwegian Wealth Fund's investment conference, to which Tangen had invited him.

Musk reacted to the Norwegian media coverage of his text messages to Tangen:

«Did you send my text messages to the press?» Musk asked Tangen.

Musk attached a screenshot of messages he had received from other people, who wrote that Tangen had given his «text messages to the press» and claimed that Tangen «has political ambitions» and is using «the oil fund to promote himself.»

Tangen explained to Musk that Norway has legislation similar to the American Freedom of Information Act.

«They have not sent your personal comments, just the part which you said that you were not coming to the conference. The country is obsessed about you, but this is not reflecting badly on you. Still, sorry for the inconvenience.»

On the right and left are messages exchanged between Musk and Tangen. In the middle is a screenshot Musk sent to Tangen, which appears to show messages he received from other individuals.

Kept secret for months

For months, E24 has requested access to the text messages between Elon Musk and Nicolai Tangen under the Norwegian Freedom of Information Act (Offentlighetsloven). The Ministry of Finance previously informed E24 that the text messages contained «opinions that, in isolation, appear to be solely of a private nature.»

On Tuesday, the Norwegian Wealth Fund stated in an email to E24 that they had conducted a new assessment and decided to release all text messages in the interest of transparency.

– When we initially assessed the request for access to the entire dialogue between the fund’s CEO Nicolai Tangen and Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk, we first determined that these were not public documents, therefore not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, says the Wealth Fund’s Head of Communications, Line Aaltvedt, in an email to E24.

– At the same time, we were mindful of the importance of the corporate dialogue and the relationship we, as an investor, have with Tesla. As can be seen from the SMS messages, part of the dialogue was related to our voting at Tesla, where we, among other things, voted against Elon Musk’s compensation package, she said.

Aaltvedt informed E24 that Nicolai Tangen is not available for an interview regarding the text messages today.