Elon Musk has issued a warning that Bill Gates might face financial ruin if one specific scenario involving Tesla comes to pass.
Both Musk and Gates are among the world’s wealthiest individuals, yet they frequently clash on various issues.
In April 2022, Musk disclosed that he turned down a philanthropic request from Gates due to a situation involving stock shorting. This was brought to light through screenshots of a text conversation between the two.
During the exchange, the Tesla CEO inquired if Gates still held a ‘half billion dollar short position against Tesla’. Gates responded: “Sorry to say I haven’t closed it yet […] I would like to discuss philanthropy possibilities.”
Musk expressed that he couldn’t regard Gates’ climate change philanthropy seriously given that Gates maintained a ‘massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change’.
There were questions about the authenticity of the screenshots, to which Musk responded: “Yeah, but I didn’t leak it to NYT. They must have got it through friends of friends. I heard from multiple people at TED that Gates still had half billion short against Tesla, which is why I asked him, so it’s not exactly top secret.”
Gates has since apologized for the incident, although it appears their relationship hasn’t fully mended.
Recently, Musk, who now owns Twitter (known as X), suggested that Gates could be pushed into bankruptcy if Tesla’s stock sees a 200 percent increase.
This statement emerged after a user on Twitter shared a screenshot of a tweet from Musk in 2023, which stated: “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.
“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…”
Musk further commented: “If Tesla does become the world’s most valuable company by far, that short position will bankrupt even Bill Gates.”
Should Tesla’s stock surge by 200 percent, it would surpass Apple to become the world’s most valuable company.