Finance Associated Press, December 11 (edited by Xiaoxiang) On Tuesday (December 10), local time in the United States, the war of words between two top American billionaires Elon Musk and Bill Gates, which has lasted for several years, seems to be continuing. Musk joked on the X platform that day that Gates held a short position in Tesla, which could eventually lead him to bankruptcy.
Musk replied to a tweet on X: "If Tesla does become by far the world's most valuable company, then these short positions could even bankrupt Bill Gates." ”
Musk was referring to the shorting of Tesla by Gates who spent billions of dollars a few years ago.
According to Walter Isaacson's biography of Musk, published in 2023, Gates holds undisclosed short positions in Tesla, supposedly worth billions of dollars.
At the end of 2023, Musk also indignantly said on X, "A few years ago, when our company was in one of its weakest moments, Gates bet that Tesla would go out of business. Such a large short position has caused ordinary investors to also suffer losses from the decline in the stock price, and as far as I know, Gates is still betting on Tesla's collapse. One should ask him if he did. ”
Musk also pointed out at the time: "Gates is so self-aware and hypocritical that he dared to ask me to donate to his mostly window-dressing environmental cause, while at the same time trying to make $500 million from Tesla's bankruptcy......"
At this time, it is unclear whether Gates has increased or decreased his short bet on Tesla since then.
Tesla's stock price has surged 62.5 percent so far this year, thanks in large part to the US election won by Republican candidate Donald Trump, and Musk, a Trump supporter, is increasingly close to the new administration.
At present, in terms of net worth, according to the statistics of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Musk is still the first with a net worth of $376.2 billion, and Gates ranks sixth with a wealth of $165.9 billion.
It is worth noting that the two people who have also become the richest man in the world have more than one place of public friction in shorting Tesla. From their attitudes towards the coronavirus pandemic, their views on electric trucks, to their entanglements around artificial intelligence, or their evaluations of each other, the two have had big differences in recent years. Some industry insiders have recently speculated whether Musk, who has a heavy revenge mentality, will "take revenge" on some of his business rivals after being in a key position in Trump's team.
Regarding the short sale of Tesla, Gates responded in an interview in 2022: "Tesla has done a great job. I'm investing more in climate change than Musk or anyone else. He did a good job, but the person who shorted the stock didn't drag him down or hurt him in any way. ”
Gates has since said, "When he found out that I was shorting his stock, he became very mean to me, but he was mean to a lot of people, so you can't take it too seriously." ”
(Finance Associated Press Xiaoxiang)