42 FORTUNE FEBRUARY/MARCH 2021

I

N LATE 2019, TALKS WERE BREWING in Berlin over a multi­

billion­dollar deal so secret it needed its own code name—

one that evoked the cloak­and­dagger espionage of the

city’s old Communist days: Project Anushka. “Everyone

thought it must be related to Russia,” says Axel Vogel,

Minister of the Environment for the state of Brandenburg,

home to the German capital.

As it turned out, no Russians were involved. Instead, in

November of that year, Germans finally learned who was behind

the biggest investment the country had seen in decades: none

other than Elon Musk.

“We’ll see you more often in Berlin,” Musk gushed that No­

vember night as he took the stage to accept an industry award,

and then stunned the audience by announcing a massive new

factory in the city. “I love Berlin. It’s great!”

Project Anushka was a reference to an old Soviet biplane

in which German officials had whisked the Tesla CEO over

the proposed site for the company’s newest Gigafactory. The

flyover was an edgy, stylish touch aimed at winning over an

COLD-

BLOODED

ELON MUSK IS NOT ABOUT

TO LET A FEW ENDANGERED

REPTILES THROW A WRENCH

INTO TESLA’S PLANS FOR A

GERMAN GIGAFACTORY—

AND EUROPEAN DOMINATION.

BY VIVIENNE WALT

LIESA JOHANNSSEN-KOPPITZ—BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES