Jan 22 (Reuters) - Elon Musk will attend the World Economic Forum in Davos for the first time on Thursday, marking a striking reversal for the billionaire who has publicly criticized the annual gathering of political and business elites.
The world's richest person will join BlackRock CEO Larry Fink on a panel scheduled for 1530 GMT, according to the latest World Economic Forum program.
Musk's appearance at Davos comes as he continues to play a key role in several global debates, including SpaceX's supply of satellite internet to conflict zones and public criticism over sexualized images generated by Grok, a chatbot developed by his AI startup xAI.
In the past few years, Musk has been one of the WEF's most prominent critics, regularly criticizing the annual Davos gathering as elitist, unaccountable and disconnected from ordinary people.
Musk has repeatedly mocked Davos on his social media platform X, calling it "boring" and saying the WEF is "an unelected world government that the people never asked for and don't want."
The Tesla CEO's status as an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump has elevated his political clout, giving him an unusual degree of influence over policy discussions spanning technology, defense and global communications.
Several of Musk's companies are of direct interest to governments, including SpaceX, a major U.S. defense contractor whose Starlink network operates in conflict zones, and X, the social media platform he controls, where changes to moderation policies have drawn criticism over misinformation and hate speech.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram and Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Alex Richardson and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
