FRANKFURT: Activist hedge fund Elliott said on Thursday it would step up pressure on Thyssenkrupp’s leadership to revive the German industrial conglomerate’s fortunes, confirming it had taken a stake of less than 3 percent.
The stake increases the influence of interventionist investors on the group, which already counts Sweden’s Cevian as its second-largest shareholder. Cevian has called for a broad strategic review of the sprawling elevators-to-submarines group.
“Elliott believes Thyssenkrupp has significant scope for operational improvement which would benefit all stakeholders,” Elliott said in a brief statement, adding it would soon seek to start a constructive dialogue with the group’s boards.
Those talks will reveal Elliott’s desire for far-reaching changes at the conglomerate, whose shares have fallen more than a fifth since CEO Heinrich Hiesinger took the job in 2011. The STOXX Europe 600 Industrial Goods & Services Index has risen more than two thirds over the same period.
Investors have become more vocal in criticizing management for being too slow in selling a legacy steel business into a joint venture with Tata Steel, a move aimed at revealing the value of Thyssenkrupp’s higher-tech businesses.
Elliott did not disclose the exact size of its stake, only saying that, as of Thursday, it did not exceed any thresholds forcing it to reveal it. Under German capital market rules, the first such threshold is 3 percent.
The move puts Hiesinger under pressure to launch a more radical overhaul, which some shareholders have suggested might be difficult to deliver under the existing management, or break up the firm, an idea he has resisted in the past with the backing of Supervisory Board Chairman Ulrich Lehner.
The chief executive is due to outline refinements to his existing strategy in a few weeks.
Thyssenkrupp declined to comment.
Shares in Thyssenkrupp traded 1.6 percent higher at 0849 GMT. They had posted their biggest single-day gain in almost a decade earlier this week when news about Elliott’s stake first emerged.
The investment is also in line with a pickup in the US hedge fund’s activity in Europe this year, with sources saying Elliott sees a chance in a region where activist funds are usually less present.
A day earlier, Elliott, led by Paul Singer, raised its stake in German energy group Uniper to 8.03 percent, ahead of a shareholder meeting where it is trying to appoint a special auditor to investigate management.
Investor Elliott’s stake raises pressure on Thyssenkrupp CEO
Investor Elliott’s stake raises pressure on Thyssenkrupp CEO
- Activist hedge fund takes minor stake in German industrial giant
- Fellow fund Cevian has called for a broad strategic review
PIF’s Humain invests $3bn in Elon Musk’s xAI prior to SpaceX acquisition
JEDDAH: Humain, an artificial intelligence company owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, invested $3 billion in Elon Musk’s xAI shortly before the startup was acquired by SpaceX.
As part of xAI’s Series E round, Humain acquired a significant minority stake in the company, which was subsequently converted into shares of SpaceX, according to a press release.
The transaction reflects PIF’s broader push to position Saudi Arabia as a central hub in the global AI ecosystem, as part of its Vision 2030 diversification strategy.
Through Humain, the fund is seeking to combine capital deployment with infrastructure buildout, partnerships with leading technology firms, and domestic capacity development to reduce reliance on oil revenues and expand into advanced industries.
The $3 billion commitment offers potential for long-term capital gains while reinforcing the company’s role as a strategic, scaled investor in transformative technologies.
CEO Tareq Amin said: “This investment reflects Humain’s conviction in transformational AI and our ability to deploy meaningful capital behind exceptional opportunities where long-term vision, technical excellence, and execution converge, xAI’s trajectory, further strengthened by its acquisition by SpaceX, one of the largest technology mergers on record, represents the kind of high-impact platform we seek to support with significant capital.”
The deal builds on a large-scale collaboration announced in November at the US-Saudi Investment Forum, where Humain and xAI committed to developing over 500 megawatts of next-generation AI data center and computing infrastructure, alongside deploying xAI’s “Grok” models in the Kingdom.
In a post on his X handle, Amin said: “I’m proud to share that Humain has invested $3 billion into xAI’s Series E round, just prior to its historic acquisition by SpaceX. Through this transaction, Humain became a significant minority shareholder in xAI.”
He added: “The investment builds on our previously announced 500MW AI infrastructure partnership with xAI in Saudi Arabia, reinforcing Humain’s role as both a strategic development partner and a scaled global investor in frontier AI.”
He noted that xAI’s trajectory, further strengthened by SpaceX’s acquisition, exemplifies the high-impact platforms Humain aims to support through strategic investments.
Earlier in February, SpaceX completed the acquisition of xAI, reflecting Elon Musk’s strategy to integrate AI with space exploration.
The combined entity, valued at $1.25 trillion, aims to build a vertically integrated innovation ecosystem spanning AI, space launch technology, and satellite internet, as well as direct-to-device communications and real-time information platforms, according to Bloomberg.
Humain, founded in August, consolidates Saudi Arabia’s AI initiatives under a single entity. From the outset, its vision has extended beyond domestic markets, participating across the global AI value chain from infrastructure to applications.
The company represents a strategic initiative by PIF to diversify the Kingdom’s economy and reduce oil dependence by investing in knowledge-based and advanced technologies.
