DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The World Economic Forum 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 warfare 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 received an invite was “not this yr and never just lately — final time in 2015.”
Musk said in a tweet Dec. 22: “My motive for declining the Davos invitation was not as a result of I assumed they had been engaged in diabolical scheming, however as a result of it sounded boring af lol.”
He didn’t specify when he received the invitation, however the tweet’s timing recommended it was for this yr. Musk didn’t instantly reply to requests from The Related Press for remark Tuesday.
Organizers did prolong invites to Musk, because the boss of Tesla, to affix a couple of occasions within the 2010s — the final being in 2015 — however he by no means registered or attended the annual assembly, Zopf mentioned.
The gathering has been criticized for a scarcity of concrete motion that emerges after a collection of classes and speeches, whereas the discussion board itself has been the target of online conspiracy theories from those that imagine the assembly entails a bunch of elites manipulating international occasions for their very own profit.
Multibillionaire Musk, one of many world’s richest individuals, 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 occasions 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 occasions with out attending the assembly itself.
FABRICE COFFRINI through Getty Photos
Musk is perhaps 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 facing trial over his tweet about taking Tesla non-public in 2018.
Jury choice begins this week and he’ll have to clarify his actions underneath oath in courtroom 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 users and advertisers with chaotic job cuts and changes to content moderation policies.
