Wealthy Chinese investors are quietly funnelling tens of millions of dollars into private companies controlled by Elon Musk using an arrangement that shields their identities from public view, according to asset managers and investors involved in the transactions.

The investments are being placed through opaque structures known as special-purpose vehicles, which have the benefit of concealing the investors’ identities, to avoid the ire of US authorities and companies wary of Chinese capital during a nadir in relations between the two countries.

“How can someone in Musk’s position have so many connections to China but still be a good person to reform the US government?” said Derek Scissors, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. The influx of Chinese money into Musk’s business empire “adds to this picture that he is more interested in his reputation and his brand in China than he is in American interests”.

China’s wealthy began funding Musk’s private ventures in the late 2010s, when the Tesla founder started building an electric-vehicle factory in Shanghai in 2019 to take advantage of the country’s efficient and low-cost supply chains.