Elon Musk, the world's richest man, warned former billionaire Bill Gates over the weekend that if Gates hadn't fully liquidated his nearly eight-year holding of Tesla shares... If you have a short position, it's best to act quickly.
Gates' long-term short selling of Tesla stock is one of the key reasons for Musk's persistent dissatisfaction with him. Musk pointed out that Gates shorted Tesla at crucial moments, damaging the company's performance. Investment confidence among ordinary investors.
Musk's latest warning stemmed from a post on Sunday by a tech blogger. The account, Tesla Owners Silicon Valley, indicated that the Gates Foundation was selling its Microsoft holdings. Gates cashed out nearly $9 billion in shares, while also closing out his short positions in Tesla .
Musk's warning to Gates may be an expression of his long-standing dissatisfaction with Tesla short sellers, but it also reveals his firm belief in the future rise of Tesla's stock price.
Earlier this month, Tesla shareholders voted to approve Musk's trillion-dollar compensation package, granting him the right to acquire a large number of Tesla shares and further expanding his influence within Tesla, which has given him great confidence.
Long-standing discord among the richest men
As of the end of October, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index showed that Elon Musk remained the world's richest person with a net worth of $469 billion, ahead of Oracle , who ranked second. Chairman Ellison's net worth is nearly $150 billion higher. Gates, on the other hand, was the world's richest man for 13 consecutive years during the internet era, thanks to his founding of Microsoft .
In April 2022, Musk revealed that he had canceled a climate change philanthropy meeting with Gates because he discovered that Gates had spent $500 million shorting Tesla stock.
Furthermore, Gates's skepticism about Tesla's semi-trailer electric trucks also annoyed Musk, and these conflicts ultimately led to years of discord between the two billionaires.
Despite Gates losing a significant amount of money by shorting Tesla, with estimated losses of around $1.5 billion in 2022, Musk has not been able to let go of his conflict with Gates.
Musk also publicly commented on a program that, based on his direct interactions with Gates, Gates' scientific literacy was not high. For the past decade or so, Gates has consistently spoken out on issues such as climate, population, and vaccines, and is considered one of the wealthiest donors to the scientific community.
(Article source: CLS)
