The statement has rekindled the enduring feud between Musk and Gates.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, frequently captures attention with his social media comments. In a recent post on X, Musk made a bold assertion that if Tesla becomes the world’s most valuable company, even billionaire Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, could face financial ruin. This statement has reignited the longstanding feud between Musk and Gates, which dates back to 2022 when Gates reportedly incurred a significant $1.5 billion loss due to his short position on Tesla’s stock.
Musk wrote on X, “If Tesla does become the world’s most valuable company by far, that short position will bankrupt even Bill Gates.” This remark was a response to an X user, Teslaconomics, who had reposted one of Musk’s past tweets. In that 2023 tweet, Musk stated that taking a short position against Tesla, as Gates had done, would only be profitable if Tesla went bankrupt. Musk further claimed that Gates had placed a substantial bet against Tesla during a challenging time for the company, suggesting that such a large short position could depress the stock price and negatively impact everyday investors.
“From what I know, Gates still holds that significant bet against Tesla. Someone should verify this with him. It’s quite hypocritical and unaware of Gates to request donations for his largely superficial environmental initiatives, while at the same time trying to profit $500 million from Tesla’s downfall,” the tweet continued.
See the post here:
In a 2021 interview with CNBC, when questioned about his investment choices, Gates declined to comment on his positions. Instead, he commended Tesla’s accomplishments by stating, “What Elon’s done with Tesla is fantastic.”
A short position is a stock market strategy where an investor borrows shares they don’t own, sells them at the current market price, and plans to repurchase them later at a lower price. The profit comes from the difference between the selling price and the lower buying price, essentially betting that the stock’s value will drop.
Elon Musk’s claim comes at a time when Tesla’s market capitalization stands at roughly $1.251 trillion, significantly trailing behind Apple’s $3.729 trillion. For Tesla to overtake Apple and become the world’s most valuable company, it would need to achieve an extraordinary growth of nearly 200%.
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