Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Microsoft mogul Bill Gates can’t stand each other which became evident after Gates shorted Tesla stock, betting on the company to go belly up.
“Just so that the public understands: Taking out a short position against Tesla, as Gates did, results in the highest return only if a company goes bankrupt! Gates placed a massive bet on Tesla dying when our company was at one of its weakest moments several years ago. Such a big short position also drives the stock down for everyday investors,” Musk wrote on X, clarifying what “shorting” a stock entails.
“To the best of my knowledge, Gates *still* has that massive bet against Tesla on the table. Someone should ask him if he does. The lack of self-awareness and hypocrisy of Gates who had the nerve to ask me to donate to his mostly window-dressing environmental causes, while simultaneously aiming to make $500M from Tesla’s demise, boggles the mind … ” he asserted.
The feud between the two billionaires has been raging for some time now. Gates is no match for Musk’s wit and regularly gets eviscerated by the tech visionary.
Just so that the public understands:
Taking out a short position against Tesla, as Gates did, results in the highest return only if a company goes bankrupt!
Gates placed a massive bet on Tesla dying when our company was at one of its weakest moments several years ago. Such a…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 11, 2023
A new biography has come out about the Starlink founder that details the rough seas between the two men. A lot of it centers on the incident where Gates shorted Tesla stock.
The biography was written by Walter Isaacson who shadowed Musk for the book. It covers Musk and Gates meeting in March 2022 at the Tesla gigafactory in Austin to talk about philanthropy, according to Fortune.com.
“It was during this meeting that the contentious subject of Gates betting against Tesla was brought up: The businessman had lost $1.5 billion by taking a bearish stance against the EV manufacturer,” Fortune.com reported.
According to the media outlet, Gates apologized to Musk for the move. He told the biographer that wasn’t good enough for Musk.
(Video Credit: Wall Street Journal)
“Once he heard I’d shorted the stock, he was super mean to me,” Gates petulantly whined to Isaacson. “But he’s super mean to so many people, so you can’t take it too personally.”
“According to an excerpt of Isaacson’s biography shared with CNBC, Gates’s justification of the bid against Tesla was that he believed the supply of EVs would soon outweigh demand, and so he would make money by making a bet against Musk’s company,” Fortune.com noted.
Musk sees Gates as a hypocrite concerning climate change since he believes Tesla is a leading force against it. He feels that betting against an EV company while being a so-called advocate for the environment is moronic.
“How can someone say they are passionate about fighting climate change and then do something that reduced the overall investment in the company doing the most? It’s pure hypocrisy. Why make money on the failure of a sustainable energy car company?” Musk asked Isaacson.
So apparently Bill Gates hit up @elonmusk to discuss “philanthropy on climate change” but Elon asked if he still had a half billion dollar short position on $TSLA.
Bill said he hasn’t closed it out, so Elon told him to get lost. No idea if this is true lol pic.twitter.com/iuHkDG3bAd
— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) April 22, 2022
Gates at one point texted Musk in an attempt to follow up on some philanthropy proposals. Musk, in turn, asked Gates if he was still shorting Tesla stock. Gates said he was.
That was all Musk needed to hear and he reportedly shut the conversation down. He proclaimed that he could not take Gates’s climate change stance seriously.
According to Forbes.com, he then messaged Isaacson, “At this point, I am convinced that he is categorically insane (and an a**hole to the core). I did actually want to like him (sigh).”
Since then, Musk has openly mocked Gates and made no pretense of even remotely liking the man.
in case u need to lose a boner fast pic.twitter.com/fcHiaXKCJi
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022
In response to Musk’s tweet on clarifying what shorting stock entails, he answered a user who wrote, “Yep pretty low, even for old Epstein island Bill”
“Someone in an interview should ask – just hypothetically – which island in the Caribbean island is his favorite ” Musk quipped.
Someone in an interview should ask – just hypothetically – which island in the Caribbean island is his favorite
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 12, 2023
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