‘Utterly False’: Elon Musk Responds to Wall Street Journal’s Tesla Report

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk speaks at the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition in Washington on March 9, 2020. Susan Walsh/AP Photo

Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday responded to a report claiming that his electric vehicle firm would be building a large factory in Saudi Arabia.

Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, claimed that Tesla and the Saudi kingdom are in discussions to build the factory. Saudi Arabia has been contacting Tesla about purchasing certain quantities of metals and minerals the company needs for its electric vehicles, the report said.

The country is also working to secure $15 billion in mining stakes from several African nations, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, and Namibia, the paper reported.

But Mr. Musk, considered by Forbes to be the world’s wealthiest individual, denied the report in a post on X. Saudi Arabia’s sovereign fund, the Public Investment Fund, has not issued a public comment.

“Yet another utterly false article from WSJ,” Mr. Musk wrote, without providing more details.

On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Mr. Musk met in New York City to hold talks about a possible Tesla factory in Turkey, according to state-run media outlet Anadolu. Images of their meeting were posted on X by Turkish government officials.

“Recalling that with the Turkish electric car Togg hitting the roads in Türkiye, Tesla entered the Turkish market, Erdogan called on Tesla to establish its seventh factory in Türkiye,” Anadolu wrote.

Mr. Musk said in May that Tesla would probably pick a location for a new factory by the end of 2023. It currently has six factories and is building a seventh in Mexico in northern Nuevo Leon state.

Tesla has a goal to sell 20 million vehicles a year by 2030, up from about 1.3 million in 2022. The electric vehicle maker has six factories in the United States, Germany, and China.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal’s claims come after a Saudi Arabia court sentenced a retired teacher to death over a series of posts he made on X, which is owned by Mr. Musk, that were critical of the kingdom.

Mohammad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi, 54, was accused by Saudi officials of using accounts on X, former known as Twitter, and YouTube “to follow and promote individuals who seek to destabilize public order,” it was reported.

Amnesty International in late August criticized the Saudi government over the incident, calling on the kingdom to drop the conviction and death penalty.

“The death sentence against Mohammad bin Nasser al-Ghamdi, who has a total of just 10 followers on both of his anonymous Twitter accounts and is accused of nothing other than expressing his opinions on social media, is ludicrous,” said Amnesty’s Philip Luther in a statement.

Reuters contributed to this report.