Elon Musk took a poke at fellow billionaire Bill Gates on Twitter, saying the Microsoft founder is ‘short’ on Musk’s Tesla stock.
Elon Musk took a poke at fellow billionaire Bill Gates on Twitter, saying the Microsoft founder is « short » on Musk’s Tesla stock. The poke came in response to a tweet that seemed to show a text exchange between Musk and Gates. Elon Musk and Bill Gates take different approaches with their philanthropy. Gates has been very vocal about investing in technology and research to combat climate change, among other things. But when it comes to investing immense wealth into Musk’s Tesla company, Gates seems to be coming up « short ». Shorting a stock, also known as « short selling », is popular among experienced investors. It is when an investor effectively bets a particular stock is going to decrease in value and they plan to take advantage of the decrease when it does. So, when Musk accuses Gates of shorting Tesla stock, he is saying Gates is effectively betting against the company. Gates stated in an interview last year with CNBC, « We need more Elon Musks’. » However, in the same interview when Gates was asked to clarify if he was short on Tesla stock, the billionaire stated, « I don’t talk about my investments, but I think he should be very proud of what he’s done.
