Musk Cuts Ties with Bill Gates... "Short Selling Tesla While Claiming to Fight Climate Change"

The decisive reason for the strained relationship between Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, and Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft (MS), is reportedly Gates' short-selling investment in Tesla.

Bill Gates (left in the photo), founder of Microsoft, Elon Musk (right in the photo), CEO of Tesla [Image source=AFP Yonhap News]

According to an excerpt from a book partially revealed on the 11th (local time) by Walter Isaacson, the author of Musk's biography, the turning point in the relationship between Musk and Gates was a meeting held on March 9 last year.

Gates contacted Musk expressing a desire to talk about charitable activities and climate issues, and Musk accepted, leading to Gates visiting the Tesla factory for the meeting.

Isaacson reported that at the time, Musk was in a situation where he had to donate $5.7 billion (about 7.6 trillion won) to a charitable foundation he established due to tax issues from stock sales, and upon hearing this, Gates wanted to make several proposals to Musk. The two had interacted a few times before, including Gates taking his son Rory to SpaceX.

However, during the meeting at the Tesla factory, Gates asked Musk to engage in donation activities to address climate change, but Musk rejected the proposal, calling it "nonsense." He reasoned that investing in Tesla, which makes electric vehicles, would allow for greater impact on climate change issues.

Additionally, Musk reportedly confronted Gates about why he short-sold Tesla stock, which caused Gates a loss of $1.5 billion (about 1.99 trillion won). Isaacson conveyed that Musk has suffered considerable pain from short-sellers.

Gates apologized to Musk, but Musk did not accept it. Isaacson said that a few days later, Musk told him, "How can you say you are passionate about fighting climate change while reducing investment in the company that does the most for it?" and criticized, "Making money from the failure of a car company that uses sustainable energy is pure hypocrisy."

Months later, Gates sent Musk a detailed document proposing donation activities again, but Musk responded sharply, asking, "Do you still have a $500 million (about 660 billion won) short position on Tesla?" Gates replied, "Sorry I haven't closed it yet. I want to discuss the possibility of donation activities," according to reports.

Musk replied to this by saying, "I cannot take climate-related donation activities seriously when you hold a large short position on Tesla, the company that tries the hardest to solve climate change."

Later, Isaacson revealed that Musk posted a photo mocking Gates' appearance on Twitter and also sent Isaacson messages containing insults about Gates.

Gates is said to hold critical views on Musk's Mars colonization plans through SpaceX and on artificial intelligence (AI). He told Isaacson, "Musk explained his thoughts on Mars to me, and they were bizarre," criticizing Musk.

However, compared to Musk, Gates is reported to have a more favorable image of him. When Gates visited the Tesla factory, he was deeply impressed by Musk's detailed knowledge of machinery and processes. Regarding SpaceX, he also expressed admiration, saying, "Starlink is the realization of what I tried 20 years ago with Teledesic (a company MS established with mobile carrier McCaw to build a satellite communication network)," Isaacson reported.