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Elon Musk has reignited his feud with Microsoft founder Bill Gates by posting on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, that Gates could face bankruptcy if Tesla becomes the world’s most valuable company. This comment stems from Gates’ past short position against Tesla, which reportedly resulted in a $1.5 billion loss. While Tesla has made significant strides, it currently trails Apple in market capitalisation, necessitating a nearly 200% growth for Tesla to claim the top spot.
In the post on X, Musk wrote “If Tesla does become the world’s most valuable company by far, that short position will bankrupt even Bill Gates”.
Short position refers to a stock market strategy where an investor borrows shares of a stock they do not own, sells them on the open market, and aims to buy them back later at a lower price. The goal is to profit from a decline in the stock’s price.
The feud between Elon Musk and Bill Gates originates from Gates’ reported short position against Tesla stock. In interviews earlier in 2022, Gates revealed that he had placed a bet against Tesla.
According to Walter Isaacson’s 2023 biography of Musk, this position allegedly cost Gates a $1.5 billion loss.
Recently, an X user Teslaconomics posted an old tweet of the Tesla CEO where he said “Taking out a short position against Tesla, as Gates did, results in the highest return only if a company goes bankrupt! Gates placed a massive bet on Tesla dying when our company was at one of its weakest moments several years ago.
Such a big short position also drives the stock down for everyday investors.”
Adding further, he said “To the best of my knowledge, Gates *still* has that massive bet against Tesla on the table. Someone should ask him if he does. The lack of self-awareness and hypocrisy of Gates who had the nerve to ask me to donate to his mostly window-dressing environmental causes, while simultaneously aiming to make $500M from Tesla’s demise”.
