Elon Musk Warns Bill Gates.. What's the Story?
Elon Musk has given Bill Gates a warning not to mess with him again. The Microsoft co-founder will face having his fortune wiped out if he makes another attempt to bet against Tesla.
Musk believes he will turn the automaker into an AI giant worth a staggering $30 trillion once Tesla completes its pivot from selling electric cars first and foremost to operating a profitable fleet of robot taxis and humanoid robots, according to Fortune.
"Once Tesla has fully solved the self-driving problem and has Optimus in production, anyone still shorting will be wiped out," Musk tweeted. Even if it was Bill Gates.”
The rivalry between the pair became public after a leaked exchange in 2022 showed that the world’s richest businessman refused to support Gates’ philanthropy when he learned that the latter still had a $500 million short position betting on Tesla’s stock price falling.
“Sorry, but I can’t take your climate change charity seriously when you have a huge short position against Tesla, the company doing the best we can to solve climate change,” Musk wrote in the undated text messages.
By the time the messages leaked, Gates was already regretting his bearish outlook on Tesla. It’s unclear whether he still had a position in the stock.
Still, Musk’s warning that his short positions would be “wiped out” is a bold claim for someone whose company has been the worst-performing name in the S&P 500 this year.
Tesla’s vehicle sales fell 6.6% in the first half of the year, and it has struggled His Cybertruck to meet its lofty expectations; and finally buried Tesla’s goal of increasing volume from 1.8 million electric vehicles last year to 20 million by 2030.
In fact, the Tesla CEO has been on a roll since he set a floor for the stock in April.
First, he touted the unveiling of a new “CyberCab” robotaxi model, implying that he would finally solve the self-driving issue. Then he announced that 2025 could see a return to growth in electric vehicle sales through new, lower-cost models.
Lingering concerns that Elon Musk might resign entirely over the loss of his 2018 compensation deal — now worth $70 billion at the current stock price — were put to rest last month when his second-largest investor, Vanguard, joined others in supporting him.
Finally, Tesla revealed Tuesday that it managed to avoid a sharper decline in vehicle sales in the second quarter by liquidating excess inventory. Cutting EV production to its lowest level since the third quarter of 2022 means it has spare battery cells it can now pump into its fixed energy storage business, doubling its already record volume in the first quarter to the record 9.4 gigawatt-hours deployed.
Tesla has now added $100 billion in market value in the past two days.
It trades at 70 times next year’s earnings, a steep multiple even for a growth stock, let alone one whose revenue and earnings are expected to shrink in 2024.
