Elon Musk’s request to Microsoft CEO: ‘Satya, I don’t mean to be a pest but…’

Elon Musk reached out to Satya Nadella on X

Even Elon Musk is not above making tech support calls. It’s another matter that his requests are addressed directly to the CEO of Microsoft.

As Satya Nadella shared a post announcing Microsoft’s partnership with Mistral AI, Elon Musk responded to his X post with more mundane matters – a request to allow users setting up their new Windows PC to do so without creating a Microsoft account.

The billionaire CEO of Tesla said the option to set up a new Windows device without a Microsoft account disappears when the device is connected to WiFi. He also pointed out that Windows does not allow uses to sign up with their work email address.

This latter point, in particular, is an issue for Musk, who pointed out that he only has work email addresses, not personal ones.

“Satya, I don’t mean to be a pest, but please allow people setting up a new Windows PC to skip creating a Microsoft account,” the world’s richest man wrote in response to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s post.

Satya, I don’t mean to be a pest, but please allow people setting up a new Windows PC to skip creating a Microsoft account.

This option disappears if the computer is connected to WiFi. Also, even if you do want to sign up, it won’t allow you use a work email address and I… — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 26, 2024

The request gained many amused responses.

“This will go down in history as the most famous tech support X post of all time,” wrote one X user.

“Be so rich that you can treat the CEO of MS as a consumer service representative,” another joked.

Meanwhile, Nadella’s announcement on partnering with French startup Mistral AI is indicative of Microsoft’ attempts to tighten its grip on the emerging technology.

The US firm, which has already ploughed billions into ChatGPT maker OpenAI, called Mistral "an innovator and trailblazer" in a statement on Monday.