The News
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is due to land in California this weekend for a week-long push to court billions in American AI infrastructure investment.
The roadshow will throw him into the backyard of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, whose regulatory clash with Pretoria is at the center of a widening diplomatic rift with Washington. Ramaphosa is likely to face questions about domestic ownership rules which Musk, who was raised in South Africa, has slammed as “openly racist” and cited as the reason his Starlink satellite-internet venture does not operate in Africa’s biggest economy.
The working visit, which kicks off on Monday at Semafor’s Silicon Valley & the World summit, unfolds against a deepening diplomatic row as Washington steps up pressure against Pretoria over everything from race policies to its foreign policy choices. South Africa was recently also removed from the African Growth and Opportunity Act preferential trade program.
US Ambassador L. Brent Bozell III warned in recent weeks that South Africa’s mandatory local equity ownership transfers under Black Economic Empowerment laws, a policy designed to address dispossessions caused by South Africa’s racist past, are holding back “billions with a B” in American capital.
Ramaphosa, whose itinerary includes meetings with Google, Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, and Microsoft, is bringing eight cabinet ministers, including his finance, trade, energy…
