Tesla CEO Elon Musk has publicly urged Bill Gates to close his ‘crazy short’ position against Tesla, suggesting that if Gates does not do so soon, he could face a potential loss of $1.5 billion.
In a recent post on social media platform X, Musk stated: ‘If Gates hasn’t fully closed out the crazy short position he has held against Tesla for ~8 years, he had better do so soon.’ The timing of when Gates initially shorted Tesla remains unclear. However, since April 2022, when Musk publicly discussed the exchange, Tesla’s stock has seen substantial gains.
Gates’s short position put him approximately $1.5 billion underwater when Tesla stock traded at around $400 (£304) per share, according to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk. The stock has continued to trade above that mark this week.
Musk’s latest post was in response to a comment about the Gates Foundation’s decision to cut its stake in Microsoft stock. The exchange has added a new layer to their ongoing feud, which has attracted widespread attention.
The $500 Million Tesla Short
Gates reportedly placed a $500 million (£380.3 million) bet against Tesla. Musk directly asked Gates whether he had shorted the stock, to which Gates confirmed. However, Gates also expressed a desire to discuss philanthropy opportunities, per Isaacson’s biography.
Musk reportedly retorted: ‘Sorry, I cannot take your philanthropy on climate change seriously when you have a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change.’
Gates later told the BBC that his short position ‘has nothing to do with climate change. I have ways of diversifying.’ In a follow-up post on X, Musk mocked Gates’s weight, adding an unprofessional tone to their exchange.
According to the biography, Gates said he was sorry, but once Musk learned he had shorted the stock, the Tesla CEO was extremely mean to the Microsoft cofounder. ‘He’s super mean to so many people, so you can’t take it too personally,’ Gates added.
The Context of Musk’s Latest Public Dispute
Musk reignited his feud with Gates shortly after securing a $1 trillion (£760.6 billion) pay package, suggesting confidence that Tesla can achieve its ambitious milestones over the next decade.
To unlock this pay package, Musk must increase Tesla’s annual adjusted profit to $50 billion (£38 billion), eventually reaching $400 billion (£304.2 billion), and ensure the stock hits an $8.5 trillion (£6.4 trillion) market value.
Additional performance targets include delivering 20 million EVs, maintaining 10 million active Full Self-Driving subscriptions, deploying 1 million Optimus humanoid robots, and operating 1 million robotaxis. As of September, Tesla has delivered just over 8 million vehicles.
Analysts believe Musk’s warning to Gates may be ‘a rhetorical flourish’, but it also highlights how deeply intertwined the interests of these two tech billionaires have become, particularly in philanthropy, AI, and capital markets.
Unlike typical corporate communications, Musk’s approach remains unfiltered and transparent. Whether Gates responds to this public cue or adjusts his short position remains to be seen, but the stakes are undeniably high.
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Originally published on IBTimes UK
