Elon Musk’s India trip may see breakthroughs for Starlink, Tesla
Tesla Inc.’s largest-ever round of layoffs and hours before its quarterly earnings, Elon Musk will fly to India to squeeze in a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It’s not an idle period for Modi either, who’s criss-crossing states for election rallies days after voting kicked off in the world’s biggest ballot where he’s seeking a third term.
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The tight timing of their meeting early next week underscores the high stakes for both men. For Musk, the prize is India’s permission for SpaceX’s Starlink Inc. to operate in what will be by far its biggest market, given China’s resistance to the American company.
For Modi, the appearance of Tesla cars in the streets of Delhi and Mumbai — and a potential investment in manufacturing by the carmaker — will cast him as a leader who’s brought marquee foreign investment to India, modernized its cities into global metropolises, and created jobs.
“It’s symbolic of the growing foreign investor interest in India,” said Sonal Varma, chief economist for India and Asia ex-Japan at Nomura Holdings Inc. This is “not just due to supply chain diversification from China for export purposes, but also to take advantage of India’s burgeoning domestic demand.”
The trip is likely to yield breakthroughs on both matters. Musk’s willingness to travel to India during Modi’s election campaign — and his relative silence on the Indian government’s censorship of speech on X compared with his pitched criticism of limits enforced
