Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, made a jab at Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Saturday (April 23). The world’s wealthiest man published a meme mocking a fellow billionaire who said in 2020 that he will leave his board posts at Berkshire Hathaway and Microsoft to focus on humanitarian endeavors.
Musk made fun of Gates on Twitter. Musk captioned a photo of Gates with an emoji of a man with a big belly, “in case you need to lose a boner fast.” Musk appeared to be furious with former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for shorting Tesla. This time, he merely mocked him for his extramarital escapades, which are now widely known.
in case u need to lose a boner fast pic.twitter.com/fcHiaXKCJi
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022
Musk got into a heated situation with Bill Gates, according to the discussions provided by a Twitter account entitled Whole Mars Catalog. “So has, apparently, Bill Gates hit up @elonmusk to discuss “philanthropy on climate change” had 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,” said the tweet.
According to screenshots of the discussions, Gates messaged Musk to discuss climate change charity, but Musk ignored him, claiming that he couldn’t take his suggestion seriously since he was shorting Tesla stocks. Musk stated in a later tweet that the screenshots of the exchanges were not a fiction of anyone’s mind, but were true.
A dialogue between Elon Musk and Bill Gates is captured in the screenshots. A text message from Bill Gates congratulating Elon Musk on SpaceX’s accomplishment was included in the screenshots. Musk responds by asking Gates whether he still has a $500 million short bet against Tesla.
“Sorry to say, I haven’t closed it out,” Gates adds, implying that Gates still has significant short holdings in Tesla, potentially disrupting the stock’s price.
Gates also stated that he wants to talk about philanthropic opportunities.
Musk answers angrily to Bill Gates, claiming that he can’t take his climate change charity seriously because he has a large short position on Tesla, the firm doing the most to address the problem.
Elon Musk was also tagged in the tweet to confirm whether or not the incident was accurate.
Elon Musk reacted to the Twitter user by stating that it was correct, but that he did not inform the New York Times about it.
“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,” Musk said.
