DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The World Economic Forum says billionaire Elon Musk wasn’t on the visitor checklist for the annual assembly of enterprise executives, world 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 world points starting from warfare to local weather change and expertise’s results on safety.
Musk wasn’t there, although he says he was invited. Forum spokesman Yann Zopf knocked that down Tuesday, saying the final time the Tesla CEO acquired an invite was “not this year and not recently — last time in 2015.”
Musk said in a tweet Dec. 22: “My reason for declining the Davos invitation was not because I thought they were engaged in diabolical scheming, but because it sounded boring af lol.”
He didn’t specify when he acquired the invitation, however the tweet’s timing prompt it was for this yr. Musk didn’t instantly reply to requests from The Associated Press for remark Tuesday.
Organizers did prolong invites to Musk, because the boss of Tesla, to affix a number 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 sequence of periods and speeches, whereas the discussion board itself has been the target of online conspiracy theories from those that consider the assembly entails a gaggle of elites manipulating world occasions for their very own profit.
Multibillionaire Musk, one of many world’s richest folks, can definitely afford to attend Davos.
Forum 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 experience 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 by way of Getty Images
Musk could be a bit busy to be palling round with the highly effective in snowy Switzerland anyway.
While nonetheless grappling with the fallout from shopping for Twitter final yr for $44 billion, Musk is facing trial over his tweet about taking Tesla personal in 2018.
Jury choice begins this week and he’ll have to clarify his actions beneath 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 personal final summer season however has alienated some users and advertisers with chaotic job cuts and changes to content moderation policies.