A group of Morgan Stanley-led banks sold $5.5 billion of debt tied to Elon Musk’s social-media platform X after receiving stronger-than-expected demand from investors, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Banks led by Morgan Stanley have sold $5.5 billion of some $13 billion of debt they lent to support Elon Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, now called X, in 2022, said a source with knowledge of the deal.

Banks including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and Barclays offered a deal to investors seeking minimum commitments in the hundreds of millions.

Pimco and Citadel are among the investors who have reportedly bought debts tied to X. This comes as Elon Musk's growing influence in the US political landscape appears to be positively impacting the company's outlook.

The Wall Street firms got stuck with US$13 billion of debt that Musk heaped on X during his surprise bid to take it private in 2022. While banks typically try to resell debt they commit to fund an acquisition quickly, investors balked in this case after Musk upended X’s business, laid off staff and sparked a steep revenue decline.

Morgan Stanley hosted a meeting with senior executives from social-media platform X and about two dozen investment firms on Friday as part of its effort to sell $3 billion of the company’s outstanding debt,