Published , by Asif Khan
Published , by Asif Khan
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.
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.
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