If you thought Elon Musk had better things to do than insult Bill Gates on the social-media platform he is maybe trying to buy, you would be wrong.
The world’s richest man, seemingly tweaked that his fellow billionaire has shorted Tesla stock, mocked him on Twitter with a crude post that compared the Microsoft founder’s potbelly to a pregnant man emoji.
Musk captioned the puerile tweet: “in case u need to lose a boner fast.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The gibe came hours after Musk confirmed on Twitter the authenticity of screenshots that appeared to show him confronting Gates about his half-billion-dollar bet that Tesla stock would sink.
The purported text exchange was posted by Musk superfan Omar Qazi—who is also his co-defendant in a lawsuit filed by short-seller Aaron Greenspan—on Friday.
In it, Gates appears to be hitting up Musk for a climate-change philanthropy initiative—but first, Musk has a question:
“Do you still have a half billion short position against Tesla?”
The reply: “Sorry to say I haven’t closed it out. I would like to discuss philanthropy possibilities.”
Musk retorted, “Sorry, but 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.”
The screenshots did not go any further.
Qazi asked Musk via tweet if the texts were “real.”
The electric-vehicle kingpin said they were but that he did not leak them.
“They must have got it through friends of friends. I heard from multiple people at TED that Gates still had half billion short against Tesla, which is why I asked him, so it’s not exactly top secret,” he wrote.
An hour later, Musk posted the Gates insult, followed quickly by a photo of six cloaked figures with the caption: “shadow ban council reviewing tweets.”
Musk, of course, is in the midst of trying to buy Twitter, take it private, and transform the platform.
