Elon Musk postpones visit to India, citing Tesla obligations

Elon Musk postpones visit to India, citing Tesla obligations

Elon Musk has postponed his planned trip to India, citing “very heavy” obligations at Tesla.

Tesla’s CEO is expected to arrive in India next week for a visit that is expected to include a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and confirmation that Tesla will build a factory in the world’s most populous country.

“Unfortunately, Tesla’s very heavy obligations required the visit to India to be postponed, but I am very much looking forward to visiting later this year,” Musk posted on X on Saturday.

Musk posted last week on X that he “can’t wait” to meet Modi.

He also plans to meet with leaders of Indian space technology startups during his visit, including Pawan Chandana, co-founder of Skyroot Aerospace, which is launching India’s first privately developed rocket in 2022. In addition to Tesla ( TSLA ), Musk is also the boss of rocket company SpaceX and X, formerly Twitter.

Currently the world’s fourth-richest man, Musk is expected to announce a $2 billion to $3 billion investment in India, mainly to build a new Tesla factory, Reuters and the Financial Times reported, citing unnamed sources.

His trip was originally scheduled just days after India began the world’s biggest democratic elections. An estimated 960 million people in the country of 1.4 billion are eligible to vote in the poll, which began on Friday and will take more than a month to complete. Modi is widely expected to clinch a rare third consecutive five-year term as prime minister.