Elon Musk denies talks over Saudi Tesla plant

STORY: Saudi Arabia and Tesla are in early talks to set up a facility in the kingdom.

That was the claim by the Wall Street Journal on Monday (September 18).

It said Saudi Arabia has tried to win round Tesla with various offers.

That includes offering the U.S. automaker the right to buy certain quantities of metals and minerals it needs for its electric vehicles.

Those purchases would be from countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo.

But Tesla CEO Elon Musk later wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the article was ‘utterly false’.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign fund, called the Public Investment Fund, did not comment.

The kingdom has been trying to move its economy away from oil, and is a majority investor in Lucid Group – an EV startup trying to challenge Tesla’s industry dominance.

Musk said earlier this year he would probably pick a location for a new factory before the end of the year.

He’s had a busy week for meeting world leaders.

Turkish officials said President Tayyip Erdogan asked him to build a Tesla factory in Turkey during a meeting in New York.

While Musk also met Benjamin Netanyahu in California on Monday.

The Israeli leader asked him to strike a balance on X between protecting free expression and fighting hate speech including antisemitism.