In A Recent Tweet, Billionaire Elon Musk Slammed Fellow Billionaire And Microsoft Founder Bill Gates, Comparing Him To A Pregnant Man Emoji

Elon Musk has confirmed that he and Bill Gates are feuding by verifying the authenticity of a series of leaked text exchanges. The Tesla CEO and Microsoft co-founder have previously clashed on matters such as the amount of money being poured into outer space projects vs spending on Earth, and the best way to combat the coronavirus outbreak. Musk has recently stated that a series of images of claimed text conversations indicating a tense exchange between Musk and Gates are authentic.

EV News Channel published this article. The four images from the Whole Mars Catalog show Musk asking Gates whether he still has a ‘half billion dollar short bet on Tesla?’ “Sorry to tell I haven’t closed it off,” the Microsoft co-founder answered the next morning at 6:04 a.m. Instead, Gates tells Musk that he’d want to talk about philanthropic opportunities.’ “Sorry, but I can’t take your climate change charity seriously when you have a big short position on Tesla, the business doing the most to address climate change,” Musk says.

A short position is when an investor sells shares in the hopes that the stock’s value will fall, allowing them to repurchase it at a lesser price later. The Mars Catalog indicated that it had “no notion” whether or not the SMS discussion was accurate. “Is this genuine lol?” it asked Musk in a subsequent tweet, tagging the world’s current richest man.

Musk has subsequently reacted, confirming the authenticity of the disclosed text exchange between him and Gates. However, the Tesla CEO confirmed that he was not the one who leaked the information to the New York Times. He speculated, “They must have gotten it through friends of friends.”

“I heard from numerous individuals at TED that Gates was still short a half billion against Tesla, which is why I questioned him,” he said, “so it’s not exactly top secret.” During an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast in February 2021, Musk said that he overheard Gates betting against Tesla in the stock market.

In addition to Musk’s admission of the tense text discussion, the Tesla CEO recently turned to Twitter to compare Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to a pregnant guy emoji, with the caption: “In case u need to drop a boner quickly.” Tensions between the business tycoons are plainly increasing.

What might possible be the source of contention between two corporate moguls whose interests aren’t directly competing? In a 2020 interview, Bill Gates discussed how Tesla has aided in the development and adoption of electric automobiles. However, he picked an all-electric Porsche Taycan over a Tesla Model 3 when it came to buying a car in this class.

Following Gates’ announcement, Musk tweeted that his “conversations with Gates have been lackluster,” a dig at his fellow billionaire’s baffling decision. Both Musk and Gates have made significant contributions to the COVID-19 pandemic battle. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation committed $100 million, and Musk redirected Tesla resources to find and manufacture ventilators.

However, since the start of the pandemic, Musk has frequently downplayed the virus’s severity and fought social isolation programs. He not only questioned statistics on COVID-19-related mortality in 2020, but he also advocated the malaria medicine hydroxychloroquine as a therapy for the virus, despite the fact that it had not been studied.

Gates, who has been at the forefront of the fight against coronavirus, blasted Musk’s stance in an interview with CNBC, suggesting he stick to his own areas of expertise. “Vaccines aren’t his strong suit,” Gates added. “He produces a fantastic electric vehicle.” And his missiles are effective. So he’s free to say anything he wants.” I hope he doesn’t get too mixed up in areas where he isn’t interested.”

Musk rushed to Twitter to respond to Gates’ criticism with a series of posts, including “Billy G is not my boyfriend” and “The allegation that Bill Gates and I are lovers is totally wrong.” Musk escalated the conflict by labeling Gates a “knucklehead” during a podcast interview with The New York Times. Musk stated, “Gates mentioned something about my not knowing what I was doing.”

“It’s like, ‘Hey, knucklehead, we create the vaccination equipment for CureVac, the business you invested in.'” While Gates stated that Musk should not speak about the coronavirus, Musk joked that Gates had no idea what electric vehicles are. Gates posted a blog article regarding electric vehicles in August 2020, asking if it was feasible to make trucks totally electric.

This may have been a sarcastic comment about Tesla’s first all-electric vehicle, the Semi. While Gates made no mention of Tesla, a Twitter user asked Musk for his thoughts on the blog post, to which Musk responded, “He has no clue.” Gates has cautioned the world about Elon Musk’s wealth and Bitcoin’Manias’ in an interview with Bloomberg.

The ex-Microsoft CEO, who has long been skeptical of Bitcoin, stated he was concerned about the Bitcoin mania, particularly because the cryptocurrency’s value might be changed by a single tweet from Musk. “If you don’t have as much money as Elon, you should probably be cautious,” he warned of Bitcoin investments.

“Elon has plenty of money and he’s extremely intelligent,” he added, “so I don’t worry about his Bitcoin going up and down at random.” During an interview with James Cordon on The Late Late Show, Gates, who is concerned about climate change, made a jab at billionaires who are making progress in space and attempting to colonize other planets. When asked about billionaires going into space, Gates replied he was more “occupied with eliminating illnesses here on Earth than than in space.” Musk’s SpaceX has been on a mission to transport a human to Mars in the near future, though he didn’t list any people specifically.