It is well known that Elon Musk and Bill Gates are not on good termsmainly because they disagree on various issues of global importance. For example, cryptocurrencies and coronavirus. However, never before have we seen such convincing evidence that there is annoyance between them.
A private conversation was recently leaked where Elon Musk argues with Bill Gates about a short stake in Tesla. In fact, the CEO of the electric car manufacturer himself confirmed the authenticity of the chat via Twitter—where else—.
“You still have a short position of half a billion [o 500 millones] dollars against Tesla? Elon Musk asks him. Bill Gates replies to an undeniably unexpected question:Sorry I didn’t close it. I would like to discuss philanthropic opportunities.” Obviously, the Microsoft founder wanted to sidestep the issue and instead discuss how Musk could be involved in some kind of charitable cause, but to no avail.
Elon Musk was quick to respond decisively: “Sorry, I can’t take your climate change charity seriously when you have a huge short position against Tesla, a company that is doing everything it can to address climate change.”
As Elon Musk commented on Twitter, he did not merge the conversationalthough he thinks that The newspaper “New York Times he could get it through “friends of friends”.
What is a short position? Unlike a “regular” investment – or going long – where you invest in a company’s stock in the hope that it will rise in price and then sell it for a profit, going short is exactly the opposite: you expect the stock to fall.
The process involves borrowing shares and selling them immediately at the current price – yes, you are selling an asset that you do not own. As soon as their value decreases, they are bought and returned to the lender, earning the difference between the sale and purchase.
While it’s perfectly legal, it’s never been seen from a moral standpoint because you trust the sunset of the company. This situation was the cause of the GameStop scandal at the beginning of last year. A group of investors organized on Reddit to buy stock in the video game store, boost its value and keep short funds from getting away with it.
Bill Gates is confident in the fall of Tesla
The fact that Bill Gates has a short Tesla obviously means that sure the automaker will collapse at some point. It is quite logical that Elon Musk would have reacted in this way.
Prior to the conversation, Elon Musk was already suspicious of Bill Gates’ short position. “I heard from several people at TED that Gates is still half a billion dollars short of Tesla, which is why I asked him, so it’s not really a secret.”
now Bill Gates has not commented on this issue.. He has acknowledged in the past that what Elon Musk has done with Tesla has been one of the biggest contributions to the fight against climate change. However, he also noted that it was the easiest to do. “We don’t work hard enough on the hard stuff: steel, cement, meat. And, unfortunately, what people think about (electricity, cars) is only a third of the problem. So we have to work on the other two thirds. ,” he said.
Source: Hiper Textual
