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Amid global overtures, including from Turkey's President and Israel's Prime Minister, Elon Musk disputes the Wall Street Journal's report about potential Tesla EV plant discussions with Saudi Arabia. This comes as the kingdom seeks to diversify its economy beyond oil, targeting electric vehicle industry collaborations.
The publication was the first to report the supposed ongoing talks for setting up Tesla's new EV production plant in Saudi Arabia. It cited people familiar with the matter as its sources for the news.
According to Reuters, the Tesla report comes just hours after Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan asked Elon Musk to build an EV facility in his country. It was mentioned that the Tesla CEO was also set to converge with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in California this week.
In any case, it was noted that Saudi Arabia has been trying to woo the American EV maker by offering a right to buy specific quantities of metals and minerals that the company requires for its vehicle production. Likewise, one of the kingdom's proposals to Tesla was said to be financing for Transfigura trading firm to help supply raw materials to Tesla's factory. The kingdom is doing this as part of its plan to shift to other lucrative businesses as it moves away from oil.
Meanwhile, not long after the WSJ article was published, Elon Musk indicated that the report was untrue. The Tesla owner reacted to the Wall Street Journal's report, which claimed, "Saudi Arabia is in talks with Tesla about setting up a manufacturing facility there, people familiar with the discussions said, as part of an ambitious push by the kingdom to secure metals needed for electric vehicles and help diversify its economy away from oil."
Musk posted the screenshot of the article on his own X account and wrote "Yet another utterly false article from WSJ" as its caption.
Yet another utterly false article from WSJ pic.twitter.com/sisFcxYKxI
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 18, 2023
Photo by: Paul Steuber/Unsplash
