April 21 Reuters Elon Musk on Thursday said he has lined up 46.5 billion in debt and equity financing to buy Twitter Inc and is considering taking his offer directly to shareholders, a filing with U.S. regulators showed.

Musk himself has committed to put up 33.5 billion, which will include 21 billion of equity and 12.5 billion of margin loans against some of his Tesla Inc shares to finance the transaction. He is chief executive officer of electric vehicle maker Tesla.

Musk, the world39;s richest person according to a tally by Forbes, on April 14 presented a best and final cash offer of 43 billion to Twitter39;s board of directors, saying the social media company needs to be taken private to grow and become a platform for free speech.

But Twitter failed to respond to his offer and adopted a poison pill to thwart him. Musk also is considering a tender offer to buy all company stock from shareholders but has not decided whether to do so, according to the filing on Thursday.

Musk, Twitter39;s secondlargest shareholder with a 9.1 stake, has said he could make big changes at the microblogging company, where he has a following of more than 80 million users.

Shares of Twitter rose less than 1 on news of the funding, indicating that the market is still skeptical about the deal.

Shares of Tesla climbed more than 3 and the value of Musk39;s 172.6 million Tesla shares rose by over 5 billion on Thursday following a strong quarterly report. On Wednesday, he qualified for…