Musk on Tuesday took to his social media platform, X, to respond to a user who invited the mogul to comment on what he would say to so-called “Tesla bears” —“Once Tesla fully solves autonomy and has Optimus in volume production, anyone still holding a short position will be obliterated. Even Gates,” the Tesla CEO wrote. Optimus refers bots that perform autonomous tasks at Tesla’s Giga Texas plant.
In the last month, Tesla stock has rallied by more than 40% after a prolonged slump that was brought on by declining sales and increased competition from Chinese EV brands, including the Warren Buffett-backed BYD.Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus to merge in $2.65B deal — Amazon to acquire stakeat $252 billion, is the world’s richest person. Gates is eighth on the list with a fortune valued at around $158 billion.
Gates told Isaacson in 2022: “Once he heard I’d shorted the stock, he was super mean to me, but he’s super mean to so many people, so you can’t take it too personally.”The Musk-Gates feud began in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, during which Gates pledged hundreds of millions of dollars toward helping to develop a vaccine while the Tesla boss was promising to provide ventilators to overwhelmed hospitals.
Musk defended himself by noting that he had helped in the production of a machine used by CureVac, a vaccine maker that counts Gates as one of its investors.The electric car maker had been in a prolonged slump due to a decrease in demand for EVs as well as stiffer competition from Chinese firms.In 2021, Gates paid Musk a compliment, telling a podcaster that Tesla is “one of the greatest contributions to climate change anyone’s ever made” and said that “underestimating Elon is not a good idea.