The world’s two richest men met for a $US470 billion ($683 billion) lunch as Elon Musk and luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault dined together in Paris.
for the title of world’s richest man over the last year, with the Tesla chief currently out in front. Musk was already acquainted with Arnault, the two having met at a SpaceX launch. The head of the Louis Vuitton empire told“We were there at the launch of SpaceX in LA, and he put me in the driving seat of one of his latest driverless cars.” The pair dined at one of Europe’s most expensive hotels.
During his flying visit to Paris, Musk once again met with French President Emmanuel Macron. It is the second in less than a month the pair have met as Macron seeks to attract investment from Tesla. Ahead of his meeting, Macron told reporters he would be “selling France” in an effort to convince the billionaire to locate an electric battery “gigafactory” in the country. Macron tweeted a photo of the pair shaking hands with the caption “Let’s work together!“.Tesla already has a gigafactory near Berlin, where the company is hoping to produce 500,000 electric cars this year.
The billionaire, who flew into Paris on his $US70 million Gulfstream jet, was not expected to pay a visit to officials in London, a government source said. Musk on Friday also spoke at the Vivatech technology conference at the Porte de Versailles expo centre in France where he reiterated his concerns over the dangers of artificial intelligence.
“There is a real danger for a digital super intelligence having negative consequences,” he said, warning of a potentially “catastrophic outcome”. He added that if there was an “AI armageddon I think I would still want to be alive to see it… and hopefully not cause it”.