Elon Musk in Jerusalem for Israeli technology bid
TECH ENTREPRENEUR Elon Musk has paid a surprise visit to Israel this week amid reports he is considering an investment in Cortica, the Tel Avivbased artificial intelligence firm.
Mr Musk, who previously co-founded PayPal, is the founder and chief executive of electric car company Tesla and space services company SpaceX. His firms are pioneering self-driving car technology and planning to put people on Mars.
Cortica claims to have raised $70 million (£49.9 million) after developing an autonomous AI platform that allows cars to predict and react to any situation. Israeli financial daily Globes reported that Mr Musk is considering an investment or acquiring the company outright.
He held a two-hour meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning.
The South African-born, US-based billionaire also took time out to see the sites in Israel, posting pictures for his 6.8 million Instagram followers.
He snapped a selfie at Masada saying: “Paid respects to Masada earlier today. Live free or die.”
He later poured flaming absinthe over a tower of glasses in Jerusalem bar Musk’s selfie: “Paid respects to Masada earlier today. Live free or die.”
Gatsby and drank at O’Connell’s Irish bar in the Mahanei Yehuda market.
This week’s visit is not Mr Musk’s first to the country.
He was in Jerusalem in 2016 to visit Mobileye, a developer of sensors for autonomous cars that were briefly installed in Tesla vehicles, although the collaboration ended after six months,
amid mutual recriminations following a car accident.
But Mobileye appeared to suffer no long-term harm because it was acquired by Intel for $15.3 billion last year.
Nor did the episode, it seems, dampen Mr Musk’s appetite for Israeli technology.