Imperial Germany funded Lenin. They funded insurgencies in India and Ireland and also tried to bring Mexico into the war but the US and England weren't weak like Russia. So Lenin rode to Moscow on an official German train with official German marks. The goal wasn't to make Russia German, the goal was to fuck Russia up severely enough that the Eastern Front would cease to be a problem and allow Germany to bring their full might to bear on Western Europe. Lenin was a shitty politician. He was a legit criminal. But because he was extremely driven and extremely ruthless, and because Russia was extremely weak, he managed to replace the Tsar and consolidate power in himself, replacing every functionary and diplomat with loyalists. The end result was extremely shitty for Russia in general and the world as a whole, but f'n great for Lenin and a spectacular payoff for the Kaiser. The most important social network in Saudi Arabia is Twitter. The guy who ran point on Khashoggi started out as a ham-handed hacker with money and then became "lord of the Flies" as MBS' social media manager. al-Qahtani hired moles inside Twitter in order to unmask and prosecute dissidents. MBS consolidated power by locking up everyone with money and influence and then blackmailing them to get out. This includes Al Waleed bin Talal. Does Musk think he's carrying MBS' water? of course not. Look how edgy he is. No, no. He owes his entire self-esteem to the Saudis, Qatar, Larry Ellison, A26Z (of course), Sequoia (of course) and the money changers. It helps him make independent decisions. Twitter matters to journalists, and only to journalists. Musk hates journalists. Musk also thinks he knows everything because he surrounds himself with people who tell him he knows everything. M Night Shamalyan wrote The Sixth Sense seven times before he figured out Bruce Willis was dead, and from that point forth he was surrounded by people who told him he knows everything so he comes up with movies about evil trees now. Musk has also never truly faced consequences. Paypal was de-facto illegal but also useful, so the laws changed. Self-driving cars are de-facto illegal but also useful, so the laws are changing. He is a man who has built a career on unearned charisma and he has staked his future on a platform where charisma goes to die. The VCs? of course they'll go for that shit. They're fucktards and it's other peoples' money. The banks? Of course they'll go for that shit. They're making interest on it and the amount they make it he succeeds is only slightly more than they make if he fails. Binance? Crypto lives on twitter. What MBS gets? I mean fuck. It isn't even his money.
What they get: As part of the deal, anyone who invested $250 million or more gets special access to confidential company information. But giving that privilege to foreign investors is raising flags with Biden and U.S. officials. Of particular interest is whether that includes access to personal data about Twitter’s users since several of the entities are entwined with governments that have a history of cracking down on dissidents on Twitter and other online platforms.
To add to your point: Someone was like "Do you really think the Saudis would invest billions into a project that they knew would become unprofitable or even tank completely, just to destabilize the USA?" (to say nothing of getting insider intel on Saudi dissidents), and I just started laughing.
It's not to destabilize the USA, though, it's to increase surveillance over domestic dissent. People forget: Khashoggi wasn't even a particularly fierce critic of MBS. He professed enthusiasm for the man with regularity. But he disagreed... and he prrrrrrrrobably belonged to the CIA so... MBS reshuffled the deck. I think MBS regards the USA the way a rodeo clown regards a bull. The bull is the entire reason he's in the ring, is predictable but not entirely, and is largely busy with someone else's crap, but every now and then you have to dance in front of it so you can keep on keepin' on.