How will Elon Musk pay for his proposed US$44B buyout of Twitter? Here’s what we know

Elon Musk bought himself some time on Thursday, after a judge accepted the billionaire's request to halt a Twitter lawsuit.

Elon Musk bought himself some time on Thursday, after a judge accepted the billionaire’s request to halt a Twitter lawsuit to allow him to close his proposed $44 billion buyout of the social media company by Oct. 28.

Now comes the big question: how will he pay for it?

Musk said earlier this week he would buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, the price that was agreed in April, but included a condition that the closing of the deal be contingent on debt financing for the transaction coming through.

Musk has pledged to provide $46.5 billion in equity and debt financing for the acquisition, which covers the $44 billion price tag and closing costs. Banks, including Morgan Stanley MS.N and Bank of America Corp BAC.N, committed to provide $13 billion of debt financing to support the deal.

Twitter on Thursday cited one of the banks as saying that Musk had not communicated to them that he intends to close the transaction. Musk said that banks were “working cooperatively to fund the close” on or around Oct. 28.

Musk’s $33.5 billion equity commitment would include his 9.6% Twitter stake, which is worth $4 billion, and the $7.1 billion he secured from equity investors, including Oracle Corp ORCL.N co-founder Larry Ellison and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

That leaves Musk needing to secure an additional $22.4 billion of funds to cover the equity financing portion of the deal.

Musk, 51, is the world’s richest person with a net worth of $219 billion according to Forbes, but a large portion of his fortune is tied to his stakes in Tesla and Space X.