DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The World Financial Discussion board says billionaire Elon Musk wasn’t on the visitor record for the annual assembly of enterprise executives, international leaders and cultural trend-setters in Davos, Switzerland — regardless of what the Twitter proprietor claims.
Notables from European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen to actor Idris Elba are gathering within the ritzy Alpine city this week to speak about international points starting from conflict to local weather change and know-how’s results on safety.
Musk wasn’t there, although he says he was invited. Discussion board spokesman Yann Zopf knocked that down Tuesday, saying the final time the Tesla CEO obtained an invite was “not this yr and never not too long ago — final time in 2015.”
Musk stated in a tweet Dec. 22: “My cause for declining the Davos invitation was not as a result of I believed they had been engaged in diabolical scheming, however as a result of it sounded boring af lol.”
He didn’t specify when he obtained the invitation, however the tweet’s timing urged it was for this yr. Musk didn't instantly reply to requests from The Related Press for remark Tuesday.
Organizers did lengthen invites to Musk, because the boss of Tesla, to hitch just a few instances within the 2010s — the final being in 2015 — however he by no means registered or attended the annual assembly, Zopf stated.
The gathering has been criticized for an absence of concrete motion that emerges after a sequence of periods and speeches, whereas the discussion board itself has been the goal of on-line conspiracy theories from those that consider the assembly entails a gaggle of elites manipulating international occasions for their very own profit.
Multibillionaire Musk, one of many world’s richest folks, can definitely afford to attend Davos.
Discussion board members pay between 120,000 to 850,000 Swiss francs ($130,000 to $921,000) for annual memberships relying on the extent of affiliation they need.
Many executives trek to Davos to trip the coattails of the assembly and hobnob with company executives who flock to city, at instances taking potshots on the discussion board from the sidelines. For instance, Richard Branson, the British tycoon behind Virgin, has seemingly come to city a number of instances with out attending the assembly itself.
Musk may be a bit busy to be palling round with the highly effective in snowy Switzerland anyway.
Whereas nonetheless grappling with the fallout from shopping for Twitter final yr for $44 billion, Musk is dealing with trial over his tweet about taking Tesla non-public in 2018.
Jury choice begins this week and he’ll have to elucidate his actions below oath in court docket in San Francisco after tweeting that he had lined up the financing to pay for a $72 billion buyout of the electrical carmaker, which by no means occurred. It culminated in a $40 million settlement with U.S. securities regulators that additionally required him to step down as the corporate’s chairman.
He’s additionally planning to step down as CEO however stay proprietor of Twitter, which he succeeded in taking non-public final summer season however has alienated some customers and advertisers with chaotic job cuts and modifications to content material moderation insurance policies.
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