Chibuike and Krystal Oguh

(Reuters] – Elon Musk talks to large investment banks and wealthy individuals in order to obtain additional funding for the $44 billion purchase of Tesla Motors. Twitter Inc According to people who were familiar with it, the deal would have his assets tied up in a smaller amount.

According to Reuters, the banks who agreed last month that they would provide $13 Billion in secured loans against Twitter declined to lend more money for Musk’s purchase due San Francisco’s low cash flow. Musk promised to contribute $21 Billion in cash towards the deal.

According to sources, Musk may use the financing to lower his equity contribution for the deal.

Musk pledged some shares in Tesla Inc (NASDAQ) to banks for a $12.5 million margin loan. One source said that Musk may try to reduce the amount of the margin loan due to the increased investor interest.

Sources said that Musk has been in contact with large investors like hedge funds, private equity firms, and high-net-worth individuals to discuss preferred equity financing. Twitter would issue a fixed dividend to preferred equity, similar to a bond, or loan, which would increase in proportion with its equity value.

The sources said that Apollo Global Management (NYSE.) Inc. and Ares Management, (NYSE.) Corp. are two of the private equity firms in discussions to provide the funding.

Sources say that Musk is not yet deciding whether to share his equity in the deal with potential investors. Sources say that Musk has not yet decided whether he will take on additional debt in order to finance the Twitter deal.

One source said that Musk is also in discussions with major investors of Twitter about whether they might be interested in rolling their shares into the deal instead of cashing out. According to a source, Jack Dorsey (former chief executive at Twitter) is currently looking into rolling his own share.

Sources requested anonymity as the information is confidential. Ares, Apollo Apollo, Musk, and Dorsey didn’t immediately respond to inquiries for comment.

Musk disclosed last week that he had sold shares in Tesla for $8.5 billion. While he didn’t disclose why he made the sale, many investors believed that it was to raise cash for Twitter.

Musk’s meetings with private equity companies are another sign that he is pushing for the acquisition. He signed an agreement on April 25 to purchase Twitter.