Elon Musk sends final warning to Bill Gates over his short bet on Tesla
The billionaires have clashed again
Featured Image Credit: Bryan Bedder / Stringer via Getty
Elon Musk has issued a stark 'final' warning to Bill Gates over his short bid on Tesla stock, as the world's richest man has expressed that things could get far worse for the Microsoft founder in the near future.
While there have been attempts for the two to work together in the past, it's clear that Elon Musk and Bill Gates don't exactly see eye to eye, at least in the past few years.
Tesla's CEO has repeatedly thrown insults towards Gates on social media and even 'trolled' him with new companies, whereas Gates has been frank about his opinion of his rival billionaire, claiming that he's 'killing children' and that his far-right politics are 'insane s***'.
One major sticking point for the pair though is Gates' long-held short bid on Tesla stock, which effectively infers that he believes that its market valuation will drop over time, allowing him to sell for a higher original price while the actual value is lower.
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Short bids are extremely common in the world of investments as you might have been aware of them during the Gamestop boom, and one key figure in the 2008 financial crash has recently 'shorted' key AI companies.
However, Musk appears to still take this position to heart and hold a grudge against Gates because of it, prompting him to issue one final warning on X after a recent stock market movement.
As shared by Mint, the official account for real-time stock tracking site Barchart revealed on X that the Bill Gates Foundation has 'dumped' 65% of its Microsoft stock, worth a total of $8.8 billion.
Nobody knows exactly why Gates and his ex-wife Melinda have chosen to do this, but the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley account proposed that they're doing it to 'cover' Bill's short bid on Tesla.
This is because Tesla's value has increased by around six percent this year, and by roughly 150 percent across the last five years, implying that these stock market jumps are burning a hole in Gates' pocket.
Elon Musk had to chime in himself, of course, replying to that suggestion by stating:
"If Gates hasn't fully closed out the crazy short position he has held against Tesla for ~8 years, he had better do soon."
While this is clearly just a businessman issuing confidence in his own company, it could perhaps suggest that big things are on the horizon for Tesla that might increase its stock price even further.
This could also be linked to the recent decision to award Musk a $1 trillion pay package, which can only be achieved if certain conditions are met. These are exclusively linked to enormous growth for the company, which would then in-turn cause the stock market value to spike.