Good morning, Peter Vanham here in Madrid.
With less than a month to go until the U.S. Presidential election, you might think election fever is running high among European CEOs with a large U.S. presence.
But when I asked Iberdrola chairman Ignacio Galan yesterday if he was worried about the future of his multi-billion-dollar investments in offshore wind in the U.S. should Donald Trump become president again, the leader of the world’s third-largest utility was remarkably unphased.
“We’ve been with Trump before,” he said. “It’s not new for us.”
I had expected a more concerned outlook from Galan, whose company experienced a public blowback in Massachusetts this Summer after a GE windmill it was due to start operating soon, broke, and fell into the sea. The bad headlines coincided with the Trump campaign repeating debunked claims that windmills are “killing our birds” and that offshore wind farms are driving whales “crazy”.
Regardless of the election outcome, Iberdrola, a Fortune Global 500 company, expects to double down on its renewable investments in the U.S., Galan told me. That is thanks in large part to the long-term “predictability” the Inflation Reduction Act brought about, but also because a previous Trump presidency barked but didn’t bite on renewable energy developments.
“When Trump arrived, [Obama era] support [for renewables] was maintained,” he said.
Another reason for Galan’s downplaying of the presidential election outcome may well be that economic fundamentals—rather than political rallying cries—are driving European foreign direct investment decisions in the US. For Iberdrola, Galan said, the need to upgrade America’s outdated electrical grid—large data centers require ever more energy and the electrification of the sector continues unabated—is what drives 80% of the company’s presence in the U.S., not renewables.
Or, to say it with a punchline: Iberdrola is more concerned with making America’s grid great again than “Make America Great Again.”
With economic conditions in Europe bleak, other European executives may do well to follow Galan’s pragmatic American playbook, whoever succeeds Biden in January.
More news below.
Peter Vanham
peter.vanham@fortune.com
Follow on LinkedIn
TOP NEWS
Former Amazon exec's new venture
Former Amazon No. 2 Dave Clark told Fortune on Monday that he's raised $100 million for his new supply-chain management company Auger. The company uses AI to help companies like those in the Fortune 500 integrate supply-chain systems.
Enterprise CEO speaks on blind spots
Enterprise CEO Chrissy Taylor said during the Fortune COO Summit on Tuesday that only 11% of consumers know that the company does more than car rentals. The company is putting emphasis on car-sharing and business-to-business services like fleet management. Fortune
Samsung apologizes to investors
Samsung Electronics vice chairman Young Hyun Jun wrote an apology letter to investors Tuesday after the company weakened its Q3 earnings guidance. The tech company has struggled to cash in on the AI hype like its competitors and been edged out by competition when it comes to products like semiconductor chips and smartphones. Fortune
AROUND THE WATERCOOLER
Elon Musk tells Tucker Carlson he’s gone all in on his gamble to endorse Donald Trump by Christiaan Hetzner
Doctors and lawyers, need a side hustle? Startup Kiva AI pays crypto to overseas experts who contribute to its ‘human-in-the-loop’ AI service by Catherine McGrath
AI pioneers Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield win Nobel Prize for physics by David Meyer
Wall Street titan admits she allocates 30% of her time to her kids because ‘work-life balance is a lie’ by Orianna Rosa Royle
Spotify’s HR chief says remote staff aren’t ‘children’ as company reaffirms work-from-anywhere policy by Ryan Hogg
China shares popped, fizzled, and climbed again in first trading day after a weeklong break by Lionel Lim
Heidrick & Struggles’ new president got passed up to become CEO by an outside hire. This is his advice so it doesn’t happen to you by Natalie McCormick
This edition of CEO Daily was curated by Joey Abrams.
