French president tells reporters he’s meeting Musk with agenda
Macron says topics also include AI, social media, regulation
Emmanuel Macron plans to meet with Elon Musk on Friday as the French president seeks to convince the head of Tesla Inc. to build a factory in France.
“I am not meeting Elon Musk with hope, but with an agenda,” Macron told reporters on the sidelines of a tech event in Paris that Musk is due to attend in two days.
“We are going to talk about AI, social media, the regulatory framework, for social networks that better protect our children. And we are going to speak about the automotive sector and batteries.”
Asked about the possibility of Tesla building a gigafactory in France, the president said: “It’s for the company to review possibilities for projects in Europe, and we’ll tout France and its attractiveness.”
Macron met with Musk in Paris last month to make his pitch that France is a leading hub for foreign investment and electric cars. Musk said he was confident that Tesla will in the future make significant investments in France.
In his push to raise France’s profile among investors, Macron has sought to make northern France a hub for the production of electric-car batteries and related materials. Yet Tesla’s site in Berlin is dialing back plans for battery-making already as the automaker’s global production network has been expanding at breakneck speed.
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