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PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron tried to brush off any indication that there were hard feelings over billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk’s decision not to attend the French president’s showpiece artificial intelligence summit in Paris.
“It’s normal, he now has federal responsibilities and he’s working on his task of simplifying the American administration,” Macron told reporters after a meeting at a start-up incubator in the French capital on Tuesday.
Musk is leading U.S. President Donald Trump’s government-downsizing team known as the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
The Tesla, SpaceX and X boss had been invited to the AI Action Summit and speculation over his attendance ran rampant in the lead-up to the event. Musk said on Monday that he could not attend in person because he was busy with “critical work in Washington DC,” but suggested he was open to attending virtually.
Macron also laughed off a question about comments from French investor Xavier Niel, to whom Macron is close to, about Musk being “the world’s greatest entrepreneur and … maybe sometimes a dick [un connard].” Musk responded to Niel by poking fun at the legal troubles his fellow tech billionaire faced two decades ago on X.
