- Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed in a tweet on Friday that he asked Gates whether he was shorting the electric carmaker’s stock.
- When investors sell a stock short, they are wagering on the asset’s price falling.
- This is not the first time the two men have clashed publicly.
Elon Musk accused Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, of shorting Tesla.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed in a tweet on Friday that he asked Gates whether he was shorting the electric carmaker’s stock. When investors sell a stock short, they are wagering on the asset’s price falling.
“I learned from various sources at TED that Gates still owed Tesla a half-billion dollars, which is why I asked him, so it’s not exactly top secret,” Musk said in the tweet.
His reply came in response to someone’s question about whether or not a screengrab of what looked like a text exchange between the two billionaires was real.
Tesla’s CEO said, “Yes, but I did not disclose it to the New York Times.” They must have obtained it via acquaintances of acquaintances. “
In the text conversation, which CNBC could not independently verify, Musk asked Gates, “Do you still have a half-billion dollar short bet against Tesla?”
“I’m sorry to report that I haven’t closed it out,” Gates said. I’d want to explore the possibility of charity. “
Musk said, “Sorry, but I cannot take your climate change charity seriously when you have a big short position in Tesla, the business doing the most to address climate change.”
It’s “critical to state that what Elon achieved with Tesla is one of the biggest contributions to climate change that anybody has ever made,” Gates told NYT opinion writer Kara Swisher last year. And, as you are aware, underestimating Elon is a bad idea.“
However, he said, Tesla was doing “simple things, like passenger vehicles.” Gates underlined the need to attack other sectors in order to have a bigger influence on climate change.
At the time, he said, “We are fundamentally underinvesting in the heavy stuff: steel, cement, and beef,” And, unfortunately, the things that people consider—electricity and passenger automobiles—account for approximately a third of the issue. As a result, we must focus on the remaining two-thirds. “
“If you focus only on those short-term indicators and ignore the green premiums across the board, you will lose out on the longest lead time, which is the most difficult thing.”
This is not the first time the two men have clashed publicly.
When Gates said in 2020 that he had bought an all-electric Porsche Taycan, a Twitter user asked, “Why did Bill Gates choose the Taycan over a Tesla?”
In a tweet, Musk said, “My interactions with Gates have been lacklustre tbh [to be honest],” he answered.
Musk has also hinted at the prospect of Gates shorting his company’s shares in the past. When asked about those remarks and if he was short on Tesla, Gates told CNBC last year, “I don’t discuss my investments, but I believe Elon should be very pleased with what he’s accomplished.”
In a February 2021 Bloomberg interview, Gates said that he wished he had “been more on the long side” of Tesla in response to Musk’s allegations.