John Elkann joins Meta: What are the consequences for Stellantis?

Mark Zuckerberg has announced the appointment of John Elkann to the Board of Directors of Meta, the holding company that controls Facebook and other companies.

Photo by: Motor1 Italy

By: Massimo Grassi

Jan 13, 2025 at 5:11am ET

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The news that John Elkann has joined the board of directors of Meta, the holding company that controls Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, has gone round the world. It's a surprising decision that sees the chairman of Stellantis join one of the world's most important technology companies.

"John is CEO of Exor and Chairman of two of Exor's automotive portfolio companies, Stellantis and Ferrari. He has extensive experience running large global companies and brings an international perspective to our board," Zuckerberg wrote in his message. Shortly after, Elkann responded, "I look forward to bringing my global experience and long-term perspective to the board as Meta continues to shape and push the next frontiers of innovation and technology."

Future prospects

Elkann, who is currently heading the Stellantis executive committee following the resignation of Carlos Tavares, pending a new CEO, is also CEO of Exor, the financial holding company through which he controls Stellantis, Ferrari and other businesses such as the Juventus football team and various newspapers. His entry into Meta can therefore be seen as a new opening towards new collaboration opportunities that may not directly concern Stellantis.

First of all, there is the discourse on artificial intelligence, which has been a transformative technology in recent years. In recent months, Meta has released Llama 3.3, the latest version of its chatbot, a competitor to ChatGPT. We are still a long way from the realities of science fiction, but we are well aware that the automotive world is also strongly attracted to and interested in AI in general. Especially for the infotainment systems of the latest models, but also for the management of electric powertrains. It is a subject that also interests Stellantis and Ferrari, and having its chairman on the board of a technology giant could be beneficial in this respect.

Of course, Stellantis, Ferrari and Meta remain separate entities and there are no shareholdings in sight, but playing the role of chairman of the former and board member of the latter could certainly lead to future collaborations, benefiting from a privileged channel to learn about the various innovations in the field of technology before anyone else.

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DS models were the first in the Stellantis group to integrate ChatGPT

Another point of interest is augmented reality, virtual reality and the metaverse (the latter is currently proving to be a flop). Exor could benefit from direct access to Meta technologies, both for infotelematic systems - think of modern head-up displays that project increasingly detailed information onto the windscreen - and for increasingly immersive configurators. High-end customers such as those of Ferrari could, by wearing visors, come face to face with the digital version of their future car and be able to configure every aspect of the exterior and interior in real time.

On the other hand, there are fears that Elkann's new role could lead to a growing disinterest in the world of cars, particularly in the light of Stellantis' negative results. However, apart from the plan presented by the Group at the end of the year, with Italy at its centre, the operational role falls to the CEO, i.e. whoever succeeds Carlos Tavares. Elkann's appointment as a member of Meta's Board of Directors therefore does not interfere with his role as Chairman of the Group.

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