They are two of the most powerful and richest men on the planet, but they often don’t seen eye to eye.
Back in April 2022, Musk said he refused a philanthropy request from Gates over the stock shorting incident, which was revealed by screenshots of a text exchange between the pair.
The Tesla CEO asked Gates if he still had a ‘half billion dollar short position against Tesla’, to which the Microsoft founder replied: “Sorry to say I haven’t closed it yet […] I would like to discuss philanthropy possibilities.”
Elon Musk thinks Bill Gates could go bankrupt (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
There were understandably questions on if the screenshots were real, to which Musk replied: “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 had since apologised to Musk over the incident, though their relationship has seemingly never recovered from that situation.
Now, the Twitter (X) owner has claimed he could make Gates bankrupt if the Tesla stock surges 200 per cent.
The comment from Musk came after a Twitter user posted a screenshot of a tweet the billionaire posted on his social media platform in 2023.
It reads: “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.
Musk made the claims on Twitter/X (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“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 then added: “If Tesla does become the world’s most valuable company by far, that short position will bankrupt even Bill Gates.”
If Tesla’s stock was to surge by 200 per cent, it would make the car giant the most valuable company in the world, overtaking Apple.
