What’s cooking between Musk and Erdogan on Tesla and Starlink
Tesla could land a battery factory in Turkey and perhaps Starlink could offer its satellite service. Here are facts and speculations about the meeting between Musk and Erdogan
Is it a honeymoon between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Turkish President Erdogan? Judging by the meeting between the two on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly underway in New York, something big is cooking in the Turkish pot, where not only a Tesla gigafactory but also the Starlink satellite communications service could soon land . Here are all the details.
The meeting
While in New York to participate in the 78th UN General Assembly, Erdogan had a meeting with Elon Musk, the American billionaire founder of, among other things, Tesla, SpaceX and Stalink.
The reports from Reuters andPolitico underline that the Turkish president would have asked Musk to open a gigafactory for Tesla in Turkey, which would be the eighth for the car manufacturer after the four located in the USA, one each for China and Germany and one currently at the project stage in Mexico.
Last May Musk announced that he was looking for a site for a new Tesla production facility, subsequently expressing interest in its location in India. The choice should be formalized by the end of the year.
During his conversation with Erdogan, Musk would have said that Turkey is among the most popular candidates to host the new gigafactory.
Even Starlink?
But not only this was discussed at the Turkish House, a Manhattan skyscraper located near the UN Building.
The Sultan also said he was willing to cooperate with Musk in the field of artificial intelligence and satellite communications, which sees Musk active with Starlink, a company that is not listed on the stock exchange like Tesla but which is entirely in his hands as a venture by SpaceX.
Erdogan said Musk told him that SpaceX would be happy to work with authorities in Ankara to obtain the necessary license to offer Starlink's satellite service in Turkey.
Erdogan then invited his interlocutor to participate in the Teknofest in Izmir, the aerospace technologies festival held at the end of this month, obtaining a positive response.
Reading Quartz
So far the facts, as reported by the Turkish president. But it is the ever-informed Quartz that provides us with a plausible interpretation.
It seems significant, first of all, that there was no Tesla representative at the Turkish House other than Musk himself. Accompanying the latter were Lauren Dreyer, who directs Starlink's operations, Ryan Goodnight, executive in charge of looking for new markets for Starlink, and Omar Kunbargi, who deals with selling SpaceX rockets.
Judging from the official statement of the Turkish government, underlines Quartz, the request addressed by Erdogan to Musk to open a Tesla gigafactory in Turkey would have come in response to the request made by the latter to the former to obtain a license for Starlink to operate in Turkey, i.e. in a country where the service is not currently available.
The new Erdogan – Musk ménage would therefore highlight the difficult position of the tycoon, often forced to negotiate with autocratic governments simultaneously using all the aces he has up his sleeve.
This in turn refers to the key problem of Starlink, that is, a network of thousands of satellites that revolve around our planet rather than remaining fixed in a single region and whose existence therefore depends on the presence of a high number of users distributed throughout the world. globe. This means, simply put, that Starlink loses money when its satellites fly over a country where the company is not licensed to operate.
For a company that required an investment of 10 billion dollars and is not generating revenue as hoped. Turkey's 85 million citizens represent coveted prey for Musk, who until now had failed to obtain permission from the Turkish government.
If Musk actually opted for Turkey as the location for Tesla's eighth gigafactory, we would be faced with an unscrupulous quid pro quo that would demonstrate, once and for all, the sultan of Ankara's ability to get what he wants – more hi investments -tech and jobs – playing poker.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/cosa-bolle-in-pentola-tra-musk-ed-erdogan-su-tesla-e-starlink/ on Wed, 20 Sep 2023 08:16:35 +0000.