• News

Musk rebuffs Bill Gates climate change philanthropy meeting because Microsoft founder is short TSLA

Elon Musk told Bill Gates that he can't take his climate change philanthropy seriously if he is short Tesla stock.

Asif Khan

April 22, 2022 9:50 PM

10

Happy Earth Day 2022, Shacknews. I got you something special in the form of a hilarious story about Elon Musk and Bill Gates. In a leaked conversation between the two technology billionaires, Tesla's CEO rejected an invitation to discuss climate change philanthropy with Microsoft's Co-founder. The reason? Gates is short TSLA stock. Musk confirmed this conversation was real on Twitter.

Yeah, but I didn’t leak it to NYT. They must have got it through friends of friends.

I heard from multiple people at TED that Gates still had half billion short against Tesla, which is why I asked him, so it’s not exactly top secret.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022

Here's a breakdown of a leaked text message conversation between Gates and Musk:

Bill Gates: Just landed.

Elon Musk: Cool

Elon Musk: Do you still have a half a billion dollar short position against Tesla?

Bill Gates: Sorry to say I haven't closed it out.

Bill Gates: I would like to discuss philanthropy possibilities.

Elon Musk: Sorry, but 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.

Musk says that he did not leak this conversation to the NY Times, and that it probably came from friends of friends. Tesla's CEO became aware of Gates' half a billion dollar short TSLA position at the TED talk he attended last week saying that "it's not exactly top secret." Tesla just reported record earnings results, and the stock's massive run over the past decade has left many short sellers licking their wounds for years. 

Some other important information we have gained from this text message interaction is that Bill Gates uses an Android smartphone while Musk still rocks an iPhone. Some of Musk's seemingly unhinged tweets from earlier today now make a whole lot more sense.

in case u need to lose a boner fast pic.twitter.com/fcHiaXKCJi

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022

Musk is truly mixing it up with a lot of different entities and billionaires this week, as he prepares a tender offer to acquire Twitter. Today's chaotic Elon news definitely skews to the more amusing side, so let's take the win and call it an Earth Day.

This article is only meant for educational purposes, and should not be taken as investment advice. Please consider your own investment time horizon, risk tolerance, and consult with a financial advisor before acting on this information.

Full Disclosure:

At the time of this article, Shacknews primary shareholder Asif A. Khan, his family members, or his company Virtue LLC had the following positions:

Long Tesla via TSLA shares

Short Tesla via out-of-the-money TSLA put options

Asif Khan

CEO/EIC/EIEIO

Asif Khan is the CEO, EIC, and majority shareholder of Shacknews. He began his career in video game journalism as a freelancer in 2001 for Tendobox.com. Asif is a CPA and was formerly an investment adviser representative. After much success in his own personal investments, he retired from his day job in financial services and is currently focused on new private investments. His favorite PC game of all time is Duke Nukem 3D, and he is an unapologetic fan of most things Nintendo. Asif first frequented the Shack when it was sCary's Shugashack to find all things Quake. When he is not immersed in investments or gaming he is a purveyor of fine electronic music. Asif also has an irrational love of Cleveland sports.