Tesla, Saudi Arabia in early talks for EV factory in the gulf kingdom to diversify economy

livemint.com:

renewable energy. Saudi officials said the talks with Tesla, made by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, began this summer, and is at very early stage. The US EV maker is entertaining the conversation, but the company could still reject the proposal, the Saudi officials added.

In 2018 PIF, which is chaired by Mohammed, purchased $2 billion of Tesla shares available on the public markets, people familiar with the request have said. Later that year, PIF Gov. Yasir Al-Rumayyan discussed further investment with Musk.

That meeting became the precursor to tweets Musk posted that said he was taking the company private and had “funding secured." The US Securities and Exchange Commission later sued Musk for allegedly fraudulent statements, a case that he settled while denying wrongdoing. When Tesla’s share price recovered to above the fund’s entry, PIF sold the shares, missing out on a later rally. Jurors earlier this year found Musk not liable in a lawsuit brought by investors over his tweets.

In its recent conversations with Tesla, the kingdom has touted its labor supply although the high cost of Saudi workers has often been an obstacle to attracting large-scale industrial projects outside the energy sector, the report said. Saudi Arabia is separately in talks with Trafigura, which is seeking financial backing for a cobalt and copper project in Congo that has gone over budget, according to people familiar with the matter. Trafigura last year struck a deal to lend Chemaf, a metals producer, $600 million to develop the Mutoshi mine, which the companies said would be one of the largest cobalt and copper mines in Congo.