French President Emmanuel Macron is to meet billionaire businessman Elon Musk on Monday to discuss joint projects six months after their last encounter in the United States, his office said.
The two men will talk about the “attractiveness of France and its industries”, Macron’s office announced, with the head of state hoping for fresh investment.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told the BFMTV broadcaster that “negotiations are ongoing” with the boss of Twitter and Tesla, who is in Paris for a meeting of 200 foreign business leaders with the French government.
Le Maire gave no details of Monday’s talks with Musk, saying simply that “all of today’s investments are the fruit of months or even years of negotiations”.
During a US trip in December, Macron held an unannounced face-to-face meeting with Musk, saying later the two had had a “clear and honest” discussion during an hour-long meeting, including on electric cars and batteries.
He had also conveyed to Musk his — and Europe’s — concerns about content moderation on Twitter since Musk bought the influential platform.
“Transparent user policies, significant reinforcement of content moderation and protection of freedom of speech: efforts have to be made by Twitter to comply with European regulations,” Macron tweeted after the meeting.
