Elon Musk to celebrate PM Meloni as Italy eyes space sector investment

By Daniele Lepido
 

When Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visits New York later this month to receive a global citizenship award, Elon Musk will be the one to hand her the prize.
 

The Tesla Inc. chief executive and X owner will present Meloni with the Atlantic Council’s Global Citizen Award at a ceremony on Sept. 23, according to people familiar with the matter. Previous recipients include Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

In a post on the Atlantic Council’s website in February, fellows Kaush Arha and Paolo Messa credited Meloni with being “instrumental in ensuring much-needed European aid to Ukraine.” Since taking office, they added, “the Italian leader has emerged as a powerful interlocutor across Europe and the world stage.”

 

Musk and Meloni have met on a number of occasions, including at a political festival last December thrown by the prime minister’s right-wing Brothers of Italy party. Appearing on stage, Musk discussed Italy’s demographic crisis — the country has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe — and exhorted the crowd to “make more Italians.”

“As simple as it sounds, if people do not have children there is no new generation,” Musk told the audience, echoing a prominent concern of Meloni’s. The billionaire also warned of the dangers of the “woke mind virus” — a favourite talking point — and unchecked migration.

The Atlantic Council event won’t be the only meeting this month between Meloni and the world’s richest man. They’re also scheduling a closed-door conversation to discuss investment opportunities in Italy’s space and artificial intelligence sectors, the people said.

Italy approved a new regulatory framework in June that grants foreign space companies permission to operate in the country, according to a statement by the minister of industry. Italy expects to generate €7.3 billion ($8.1 billion) of investment in the space sector by 2026.

Musk, who’s also CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., already has a head start. Italy is among the countries serviced by Starlink, which delivers broadband Internet through a global network of more than 6,000 SpaceX satellites.

Last April, Starlink claimed that Telecom Italia SpA, the country’s largest telecom provider, was obstructing the rollout of its high-speed internet services. 

Representatives for SpaceX declined to comment, as did a spokesperson for the Italian government.