Elon Musk has taken some time away from guiding incoming US President Donald Trump to meet with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa over Starlink and Tesla.
According to Bloomberg, Musk and Ramaphosa discussed a host of issues, including easing regulations in South Africa to allow Starlink to operate legally. The specific regulation in question requires Starlink to be at least 30% black-owned and share equity with local partners.
South African officials confirmed the discussions and noted that they are considering local investment and jobs in lieu of the ownership regulations. Specifically, the officials noted that they were interested in Tesla investing in a battery production plant in the country.
This is not the first time a country has tried to tie in Starlink access and Tesla investment. Indonesia allowed Starlink access to rural parts of Bali, but a long-held priority by the Indonesian government was for Tesla to open a battery plant there. Per the Wall Street Journal, Tesla was initially interested, but due to the location, Tesla rebuffed. Interestingly, Indonesia is still working on Musk and recently proposed building data centres for xAI.
Neither South African officials nor SpaceX has confirmed what was discussed at the meeting between Musk and Ramaphosa. Tesla representatives also did not comment on the Bloomberg report.
