A text exchange between Elon Musk and Bill Gates that was leaked online shows that Musk had asked Gates about his half a billion short position against Tesla. The Tesla chief confirmed the authenticity of the screenshots that emerged online while denying that he was the one who leaked them.
“Do you still have a half billion dollar short position against Tesla?” Musk asked the Microsoft co-founder, according to screenshots of the leaked chat.
“Sorry to say I haven’t closed it out,” Bill Gates responded, adding that he would like to discuss “philanthropy possibilities” with Musk.
To this, Elon Musk all but accused the Microsoft co-founder of climate change hypocrisy as he replied: “Sorry, but I cannot take your philanthropy on climate change seriously when you have a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change.”
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
Musk was asked about the authenticity of the screenshots by a Twitter user.
“Yeah, but I didn’t leak it to NYT. They must have got it through friends of friends,” the Tesla and SpaceX CEO wrote. “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.”
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. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022
Musk’s claim of multiple people speaking about Bill Gates shorting Tesla lines up with he had said last year during an appearance at the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Musk said that multiple people familiar with the matter had told him that Gates had a short position against Tesla.
Bill Gates and Elon Musk have a complicated relationship and don’t always see eye to eye.
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