PARIS — French tech billionaire Xavier Niel didn’t mince words when he was asked about Elon Musk during an interview Monday.
Niel, who made his fortune in telecommunications, told broadcaster France 2 that he thinks Musk is “the world’s greatest entrepreneur and, on on the top of that, a very complex guy, to say the least. I’m going to use a difficult word — maybe sometimes a dick [un connard]. He is a mix of the two.”
While lauding Musk’s intelligence and business talent, Niel criticized the Tesla, SpaceX and X boss’s “extreme, radical positions” and warned that he could be a danger as many take what he says literally.
Niel’s comments came on the morning of a major artificial intelligence summit being held in Paris. Niel was among the entrepreneurs President Emmanuel Macron consulted ahead of the summit and before the French leader announced a €109 billion AI strategy. Niel’s company said Friday it would invest €3 billion in French AI initiatives.
Tax backlash
During the interview, Niel also criticized the French government’s planned corporate tax hike, which is aimed at reining in the country’s massive budget deficit by bringing in around €8 billion, echoing similar concerns raised by fellow French billionaire Bernard Arnault — who is also his father-in-law — last month.
“He wasn’t wrong,” said Niel.
Niel said in a separate interview with France Inter on Monday that raising taxes “sends the wrong signal” to businesses looking to invest in France. Niel stressed that the country had managed to create an attractive environment for investors in recent years, but he warned that the tax hike put that legacy at risk.
In an interview ahead of the AI summit on Sunday, Macron hit back at billionaires and business leaders critical of the tax hikes and asked them to offer more concrete solutions rather than threatening to take their business elsewhere.
“Be patriots,” Macron said.
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