Baillie Gifford, the Scottish fund manager that owns nearly 8 per cent of Tesla, has thrown its weight behind Elon Musk

Tesla’s second largest shareholder has said that it would be willing to plough more cash into the electric car maker, despite the controversy surrounding its founder.

Baillie Gifford, the Scottish fund manager that owns nearly 8 per cent of the Silicon Valley giant, threw its weight behind Elon Musk, who recently settled a fraud case with America’s financial watchdog.

“If he needs more capital we would be willing to back him,” Nick Thomas, a partner at Baillie Gifford, said. The fund manager said Mr Musk was an entrepreneur of “vision and ambition, who’s working towards a social good”.

If he fulfils his promise to upend the global motor industry, Tesla will be worth considerably more than its current $57 billion market value, according to Mr