Billionaire Elon Musk was not on the guest list for the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, organisers clarified on Tuesday, after the Twitter owner claimed he had been invited.
Notables from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to actor Idris Elba are gathering in the Alpine town this week to discuss global issues including war, climate change and technology's effects on security.
Mr Musk is not there, though he claims he was invited, saying in a tweet on December 22: “My reason for declining the Davos invitation was not because I thought they were engaged in diabolical scheming, but because it sounded boring.”
But the forum's spokesman Yann Zopf knocked that down on Tuesday, saying that the last time the Tesla chief executive had received an invitation was in 2015.
“Musk never registered for any annual meeting in Davos,” Mr Zopf said.
The Tesla chief is currently bogged down by several challenges, including a major loss of wealth, recently earning the distinction of having experienced the biggest fortune loss in history.
While still grappling with the fallout from buying Twitter last year for $44 billion, Mr Musk is facing a lawsuit from shareholders over a 2018 tweet about taking Tesla private.
His tweet stated that he had lined up the financing to pay for a $72 billion buyout of the electric car maker — but this never happened.
The fiasco culminated in a $40 million settlement with US securities regulators and also required him to step down as the company’s chairman.
He is also planning to step down as chief executive of Twitter, which he succeeded in taking private last summer, but he has alienated some users and advertisers with chaotic job cuts and changes to content moderation policies.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
