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CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, and owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, at the Viva Technology conference at the Porte de Versailles Exhibition Center on June 16, 2023 in Paris, France.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he is “incredibly excited about India’s future,” adding that it has “more promise than any major country in the world.”
“I am a fan of Modi,” Musk admitted in a video interview published on Prime Minister on Tuesday Narendra Modiis official YouTube page.
“He really wants to do the right thing for India. He wants to be open, he wants to support new companies, but at the same time make sure it benefits India,” the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX said after their meeting in New York.
Modi and Musk last met in 2015 when the Indian Prime Minister visited Tesla’s Fremont Factory in California.
The Indian Prime Minister is on his first state visit to the US, where he is expected to hold high-level talks with leaders and business executives on defence, technology and India’s role in the Indo-Pacific.
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President Joe Biden will receive him Thursday at a dinner at the White House in Washington, where Modi is expected to meet with a slew of business leaders, including Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, according to CNBC’s Seema Mody.
Modi “really cares about India because he pushes us to make significant investments in India, which is something we intend to do and we’re just trying to find the right timing,” Musk said.
Invest in India
India has great potential for Tesla, an analyst told CNBC.
“Any US company with a publicly traded subsidiary in India has seen higher growth and value creation in India,” said Nilesh Shah, general manager of Kotak Mahindra Asset Management.
“US investors will be assured that building a partnership between the US and India will be a real win-win situation for both countries,” he added.
Tesla’s investments would be aimed at supporting India’s renewable energy generation primarily through solar and wind, the EV maker’s CEO said.
“India is great for solar energy. The amount of land area you really need to generate enough electricity to power India is very small. I think it would probably be 1% or 2% of the land area in India are, so it’s very doable.”
Other investment areas include stationary battery packs and electric vehicles.
“India will be a promising market for Tesla, as their fate in China will be similar to that of other US automakers who were eventually beaten by Chinese competitors,” Shah stressed.
Musk also said he would like to improve India’s internet connectivity and hopes to bring SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service to the South Asian country.
This could be “incredibly useful for remote or rural villages where they may not have access to (the) internet or the internet is very expensive and slow,” Musk said.
Musk said Modi had invited him to visit India, and it could happen as early as next year.
During Modi’s visit to New York, he crossed paths with American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, investor Ray Dalio and Grammy Award winner Falguni Shah.
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