New York — Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings purchased a 5% stake in Tesla as the electric-car maker run by Elon Musk races to bring his critical Model 3 sedan to market later this year. Shenzhen-based Tencent paid about $1.8bn for 8.17-million shares through Tesla’s recent stock offering and via open-market purchases, according to a regulatory filing on Tuesday. The acquisition makes Tencent, the owner of the WeChat messaging app, Tesla’s fifth-largest shareholder, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. "Elon Musk is the archetype for entrepreneurship, combining vision, ambition, and execution," Tencent said in an e-mail. "Tesla is a global pioneer at the forefront of new technologies, including electric vehicles, assisted driving, shared vehicles, digitising real-world information, sustainable energy generation and scalable energy storage." Tesla raised as much as $1.4bn through a stock and debt offering earlier in March, more than initially sought, as it looked to cushion...
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