Elon Musk tweets that he confronted Invoice Gates about shorting Tesla

Elon Musk has accused Microsoft co-founder Invoice Gates of shorting Tesla.

In a tweet on Friday, the Tesla CEO admitted that he requested Gates if he was short-selling shares of the electrical carmaker. When traders brief a inventory, they’re betting that the worth of the asset will fall.

“I heard from a number of folks at TED that Gates nonetheless had half billion brief towards Tesla, which is why I requested him, so it is not precisely prime secret,” Musk stated within the tweet.

He was responding to a Twitter user’s question on whether or not a screengrab of a supposed textual content dialog between the 2 billionaires was actual.

The Tesla chief’s response was: “Yeah, however I did not leak it to NYT. They should have obtained it by mates of mates.”

The account that inquired in regards to the textual content messages, “@wholemarsblog” closely promotes Tesla and Elon Musk, and is among the many few handles that Elon Musk most interacts with on Twitter.

The one who runs @wholemarsblog, Omar Qazi, is a co-defendant with Elon Musk in a libel and harassment lawsuit introduced by Aaron Greenspan, founding father of the general public data database Plainsite, who has additionally shorted Tesla inventory and been a vocal critic of Elon Musk.

In the text exchange, which couldn’t be independently verified by CNBC, Musk asked Gates: “Do you continue to have a half billion greenback brief place towards Tesla?”

To which Gates replied: “Sorry to say I have not closed it out. I wish to talk about philanthropy potentialities.”

Musk shot again: “Sorry, I can’t take your philanthropy on local weather change critically when you might have a large brief place towards Tesla, the corporate doing essentially the most to unravel local weather change.”

The New York Instances has not reported on Gates’ Tesla trades but, or the textual content messages referenced in @wholemarsblog’s tweet.

A spokesperson for Invoice Gates was not instantly obtainable for remark when contacted by CNBC.

Gates instructed New York Instances opinion author Kara Swisher final yr: “It is essential to say that what Elon did with Tesla is without doubt one of the biggest contributions to local weather change anybody’s ever made. And you understand, underestimating Elon isn’t a good suggestion.”

However he went on so as to add that what Tesla was doing was “simple stuff, like passenger vehicles.” Gates emphasised the necessity to make a larger affect on local weather change by tackling different industries.

“We’re principally not doing sufficient on the laborious stuff: metal, cement, meat,” he stated at the moment. “And sadly, the issues folks take into consideration — the electrical energy, passenger vehicles — are a 3rd of the issue. So now we have to work on the two-thirds.”

“If all you take note of is these short-term metrics, not the inexperienced premiums throughout the board, you then miss out on what’s the longest lead time, which is the laborious stuff.”

It is not the primary time the 2 males have had a public disagreement.

When Gates revealed in 2020 that he purchased himself an all-electric Porsche Taycan, a Twitter person requested: “I ponder why Invoice Gates determined to go together with the Taycan as an alternative of a Tesla.”

Musk responded in a tweet: “My conversations with Gates have been underwhelming tbh [to be honest].”

Musk has additionally beforehand speculated on the opportunity of Gates shorting his firm’s inventory. Requested about these feedback and whether or not he was brief Tesla, Gates instructed CNBC final yr: “I do not speak about my investments however I believe he ought to be very happy with what he is executed.”

In a Bloomberg interview additionally in February 2021, Gates stated that he wished he had “been extra on the lengthy facet” of Tesla when requested about Musk’s claims.

—CNBC’s Lora Kolodny, Todd Haselton and Ryan Browne contributed to this report.