Tesla CEO Elon Musk talks to media as he arrives to visit the construction site of the future US electric car giant Tesla, on September 03, 2020 in Gruenheide near Berlin. Tesla builds a compound at the site in Gruenheide in Brandenburg for its first Euro
BERLIN: Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elon Musk praised German vaccine developer CureVac as one the world's most innovative firms in a conversation with German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
"Musk and Altmaier agreed that CureVac, which is working on a new vaccine approach and which collaborates with Tesla, counts among the most innovative companies in the world," the source said, referring to a meeting on Wednesday.
Musk, who is Tesla Inc's CEO, met with three German ministers and other senior politicians on Wednesday to discuss the progress of a collaboration between the carmaker and CureVac and a planned electric vehicle factory near Berlin.
The economy ministry declined to comment. Europe-based spokespeople for Tesla were not immediately available for comment.
Investor Dietmar Hopp, who owns short of 50% in CureVac, on Thursday dismissed as "pure fantasy" any speculation that Musk's appreciation for the biotech company amounted to takeover interest, speaking to news website Merkur.de.
A CureVac spokesman said purchasing a stake in CureVac was not a topic of discussions during Musk's visit of the company's Tuebingen headquarters on Tuesday.
A Tesla subsidiary is helping to build mobile molecule printers to make the potential COVID-19 vaccine under development by CureVac.
Last November, the U.S. electric carmaker announced plans to build a electric vehicle factory in Gruenheide in the eastern state of Brandenburg that surrounds Berlin.
