Elon Musk was in Paris on Friday with his mother Maye and ex-wife Talulah Riley – meeting the French president, lunching with the world’s second richest man, Bernard Arnault, and addressing a tech conference where he warned about the dangers of AI.
Later on Friday evening the group attended an event at the National Library.
Musk, 51, is in the midst of something of a European tour, as leaders try to court the Tesla boss and encourage investment in their countries. On Thursday he was in Rome to meet the Italian prime minister and foreign minister; the day later, he met Emmanuel Macron for the second time in just over a month.
Let’s work together!’ tweeted the French president, with the hashtag: ‘#ChooseFrance.’
French officials are hoping to convince Musk to pick France for the construction of his next Tesla gigafactory in Europe.
Musk had lunch with Arnault, 74 – the CEO and controlling shareholder of LVMH, which consists of about 75 luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, and Christian Dior – and two of Arnault’s sons, Antoine and Alexandre.
All of Arnault’s five children hold important positions in LVMH, with each closely watched for any sign of pulling ahead of others to one day succeed the 74-year old CEO, who has not indicated he plans to step down any time soon.
The group lunched at five-star hotel Cheval Blanc, part of the LVMH portfolio, before Antoine, 46, appeared on stage with Musk at the VivaTech conference.
