Elon Musk has reignited his long-running feud with Bill Gates, warning the Microsoft cofounder to exit his multibillion-dollar short position against Tesla before it gets even more painful.
“If Gates hasn’t fully closed out the crazy short position he has held against Tesla for ~8 years, he had better do so soon,” Musk said in a post on X over the weekend.
The jab comes as Tesla’s stock has continued to climb, trading at around $404 at the time of writing. Gates reportedly shorted Tesla by roughly $500 million several years ago, and the trade had ballooned into an estimated $1.5 billion loss by 2022, according to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk.
The feud entered the public eye in 2022 when Musk confronted Gates directly via text over the short. Gates confirmed the position, adding that he still wanted to discuss philanthropy with Musk. The Tesla CEO wasn’t buying it. “Sorry, I cannot take your philanthropy on climate change seriously when you have a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change,” he replied at the time.
The renewed tension arrives at a pivotal moment for Musk. Tesla shareholders earlier this month overwhelmingly approved his unprecedented $1 trillion compensation package, one that cements Musk’s renewed commitment to the company. The plan requires Musk to propel Tesla to a staggering $8.5 trillion market valuation — alongside achieving key operational milestones — to unlock the full award. It is the largest CEO pay package in corporate history.
Musk has said Tesla’s next chapter is about “sustainable abundance,” powered not primarily by automotive dominance but by breakthroughs in autonomy, robotics, AI, and renewable energy. Robotaxis, Optimus, and Tesla’s next-generation manufacturing platform are all central to that mission.
Against that backdrop, Musk appears eager to remind skeptics — especially high-profile ones like Gates — of the risks of betting against Tesla. And with the stock rising and momentum building behind Tesla’s autonomy and AI ambitions, Musk isn’t passing up the opportunity to twist the knife.
