To be clear so everyone's on the same page -- Elon clarified this morning the Saudi gov't is his take private investor.
As a Canadian lol...
I'm mixed on this development. Tesla needs to go private to get rid of the smear campaign. They really do. And the ppl with money have had more than enough time to kick the tires and work something out with Tesla. The fact they haven't to this point mean they don't want to. So financially, and for the health of the company, this is a very big deal.
That having been said, the Saudi's are despots. The Wahhabi strain of Sunni Islam is promulgated by the Saudi government. We would have neither the Taliban nor Al Qaeda were it not for official Saudi state support. I'm not saying they're terrorists, I'm saying they have an intertwined codependent relationship with their version of the Church, and their version of the Church is downright nasty.
Further, the non-nasty side of the Saudi gov't is very Trumpish. For this, see their recent rants and actions re. Canada. Want to speak to your democratic ideals? Feel free to get dumped on.