Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia is a Twitter shareholder. He had rejected Elon Musk's desire to buy Twitter, but now he fully supports it.
Alwaleed is the son of Prince Talal bin Saud, the direct grandson of the late King Abdulaziz bin Saud who founded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. So Alwaleed is the nephew of King Salman who is currently in power.
In a recent tweet, Alwaleed said that Musk's offer was not commensurate with the value of Twitter and its future growth prospects, so he turned it down.
"I don't believe that Elon Musk's $54.20 proposal is anywhere near the intrinsic value of Twitter in terms of its growth prospects," he wrote.
But in a recent tweet he addressed to Elon Musk, the prince has changed his mind. "Nice to connect with you my new friend," he wrote on Twitter.
"I am confident that you will be a great leader for Twitter to push and maximize its great potential," he added. Prince Alwaleed also said he couldn't wait to join Elon Musk to create the new Twitter.
Quoted from the New York Post, it's not clear why the prince suddenly changed his mind. Maybe he read Elon Musk's vision and mission on Twitter and agreed with the thoughts expressed by the Tesla and SpaceX skipper.
Alwaleed was once one of the richest people in the Middle East. According to a Forbes report in 2017, Alwaleed's wealth reached USD 39.8 billion and became the 45th richest person in the world.
Most of his wealth comes from the 95% shares of Kingdom Holding Company that he holds. Prince Alwaleed also invested his wealth in several big companies such as Twitter, Lyft, Citigroup, and others.