Elon Musk: "significant investments" to come in France, for what project?

While in France and attending the “Choose France” summit on Monday May 15, Elon Musk said he could make “significant investments” in France.

[Updated May 15, 11:03 p.m.] It was a brief announcement, but it was intriguing. When he was to meet Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, Elon Musk said “to be confident that in the future we will make significant investments in France”. This sentence was pronounced a few hours after Elon Musk’s interview with Emmanuel Macron., Monday, May 15, as part of the “Choose France” summit. The man, CEO of Tesla, Space X, Hyperloop, but also Twitter, did not specify what he was thinking. The discussions should not lead immediately, since the American billionaire declared that there would be no announcement during the day on a subject.

Elon Musk, who weighs 180 billion dollars, could invest in France in a project. Monday May 15, at the microphone of BFM TV, Bruno Le Maire had hinted, before the start of the “Choose France” summit, that a project was underway. “There are negotiations underway. He is not there just to take advantage of Versailles,” said the Minister of the Economy. Recalling the various sectors in which Elon Musk has invested, the minister did not go further. But “all the investments that are made today are the fruit of months or even years of negotiations,” he said.

During his interview with the JT of TF1, Monday, May 15, Emmanuel Macron did not mention Elon Musk and his possible investments. On the other hand, he recalled the importance of reindustrialising France. Trying to attract this industrial boss with his electric vehicles or his batteries seems to fit into this guideline. Will Emmanuel Macron manage to close a deal? And what territory could benefit from it? Making this subject public is not on the agenda.

If Elon Musk were to invest in France, it would not be the first project launched in France with the billionaire’s money. On January 24, 2017, the company Hyerploop, owned by the American businessman, was established in Toulouse. A research and development center to develop a means of transport allowing people to travel at 1200 km/h was launched. But after six years on the former air base of Francazal, located south of the Pink City, it is the big blur. “There are not many people left… This affair has almost been forgotten”, commented Albert Sanchez, mayor of Cugnaux (municipality on which the site is located), with Actu Toulouse in December 2022. The creation of the fifty jobs were never held, as was the creation of a one-kilometre test track which was to be carried out by the company, a project definitively buried by the Métropole de Toulouse. At the time, the city councilor “considers that Hyperloop is already no longer there.”

But to that same local outlet, Hyperloop finally agreed to open in early March. Only François-Xavier Fenet, vice-president of engineering at Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is present, the ten other employees being “teleworking” according to him. However, the project is progressing, he assures us, referring to various tests. The promise of passenger trials in 2020 has not been fulfilled. And, with Bloomberg, Robert Miller, marketing director of HyperloopTT, said that Hyperloop could leave Toulouse by the end of summer 2023, although this has not yet been confirmed.