'Funding secured': The 17 most unbelievable things people in tech said in 2018

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The last 12 months have been a strange and confusing time in tech, especially for the giants housed mostly in Silicon Valley.

This is the year that the default public attitude to tech firms such as Google and Facebook became one of suspicion, resulting in greater scrutiny from politicians and media.

Business Insider has captured something of the changing spirit with a list of the 17 most jaw-dropping quotes from 2018.

The list is, perhaps unsurprisingly, jointly dominated by Facebook executives and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, both of whom had a trying year under the spotlight. Other figures include Steve Jobs, after the Apple cofounder's daughter Lisa wrote a poetic and devastating memoir which showed her father in a new light.

"You're getting nothing."

It's an open secret that Apple cofounder Steve Jobs was not only a visionary but an exceptionally difficult man.

A memoir published this year by his daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs, lends further nuanced depth to that image and examines their often frosty relationship.

In one heartbreaking extract, told for the first time, Brennan-Jobs recalled that her father would replace every Porsche as soon as it got a scratch. She asked whether she could have one once he replaced it.

"You're not getting anything," she recalls him responding. "You understand? Nothing. You're getting nothing."

"Funding secured."

Elon Musk's Twitter activity prompted great scrutiny of the Tesla CEO this year, but the tweet that bit back hardest was his infamous claim that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private.

The full tweet appeared to contain a marijuana reference. "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420," he wrote. "Funding secured."

Ultimately, the tweet led to Musk being slapped with a $20 million fine from the SEC after it became apparent that funding had not in fact been secured. Under the terms of the settlement, Musk also had to step down as chairman of Tesla.

"I saw him in the kitchen tucking his tail in between his legs scrounging for investors to cover his ass after that tweet."

A surprising twist in the tale of Elon Musk's "funding secured" debacle was when rapper Azealia Banks weighed in with her account of events.

Banks claimed that after being invited to Musk's LA home to collaborate with Grimes, who was in a relationship with Musk at the time (it is unclear whether they are still a couple), she saw him scrambling for investors.

"They bring me out there on the premise that we would hang and make music," Banks told Business Insider in a DM. "But his dumbass kept tweeting and tucked his dick in between his ass cheeks once shit hit the fan.

"I saw him in the kitchen tucking his tail in between his legs scrounging for investors to cover his ass after that tweet. He was stressed and red in the face."

Banks later wrote an apology letter to Musk, saying "I feel terrible about everything."

See the rest of the story at Business Insider