Elon Musk has confronted Bill Gates over suspicions that he has been short-selling Tesla stocks. When investors are short-selling stocks, they believe that these assets will lose their value. To make a short-sale, investors borrow stocks or other assets that they believe will lose value, and then they sell them to those who are willing to purchase them at their market price. Before the borrowed stocks or assets can be returned, the investors are betting that the value will steadily decrease so they can buy back these stocks or assets and pocket the difference. Musk was motivated to confront Gates as he has heard from several sources at TED that Gates had 500 million dollars shorted against Tesla as was mentioned in his tweet on Friday, April 22.
This conversation ensued because of a text chat between Gates and Musk that was leaked to the public. Musk was answering the question of a Twitter user who asked if the text chat occurred. In a tweet, Musk stated he never leaked the text conversation that took place between himself and Gates.
When Musk confronted Gates about short-selling Tesla stocks, Gates defended his position by stating that he had not closed out his short-sale because he wanted to discuss the possibility of partnering together in philanthropic engagements. Musk stated that he would not be partnering with Gates in philanthropy activities when he is short-selling Tesla, a company that is doing the most to make a positive impact on the environment. This text chat has not yet been independently verified by news sources.
The Twitter user, @wholemarsblog, was the one who inquired about the text chat, and this user has been an avid supporter of Musk and Tesla. Omar Qazi, the user behind the @wholemarsblog Twitter account, is presently a co-defendant with Elon Musk in a lawsuit case that was filed by Aaron Greenspan, a staunch critic of Musk who has also done a short sale of Tesla stock.
This is not the first time that the two businessmen have disputed one another in public. In 2020, Bill Gates purchased an electric Porsche Taycan, Elon Musk was less than impressed.
