On July 3, Elon Musk warned Bill Gates not to “irritate” him any further. Musk declared that the Microsoft co-founder would face the risk of being “obliterated” if he continued to bet against Tesla. According to Fortune, the reason is because Musk believes he will turn the automaker into a $30 trillion AI giant once Tesla completes its strategy of shifting from prioritizing electric vehicle sales to operating a profitable fleet of robotaxis and humanoid robots.
On social network X on July 3, he wrote: “Once Tesla completely solves the self-driving problem and the Optimus robot is mass produced, anyone still holding a short position on the stock will be wiped out. Even Gates.”
Elon Musk warns that those who short Tesla stock will be “wiped out.” Photo: X Fortune revealed that the rivalry between the two tech giants became public after a leaked conversation in 2022 showed that the world’s richest man refused to support Gates’ philanthropy when he learned that he was still betting half a billion dollars that Tesla’s stock price would fall. “Sorry, but I can’t take your climate change philanthropy seriously when you still have a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to address climate change,” Musk wrote in the undated text message. At the time those messages were leaked, Gates was said to have regretted his bearish decision on Tesla. It is unclear whether he still holds shares in the company.
Still, Musk’s warning that short sellers will be “wiped out” is seen as a bold statement for someone whose company has been the worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 this year.
Tesla is now shifting its focus to developing robotaxi and humanoid robots. Photo: Getty Images Tesla’s car sales are expected to fall 6.6% in the first half of 2024, while Musk’s Cybertruck pickup truck is struggling to meet high market expectations. At the same time, he also abandoned the goal of increasing Tesla’s electric vehicle sales from 1.8 million last year to 20 million by 2030. But Elon Musk is not someone who easily backs down in the face of difficulties.
In fact, Tesla’s stock has been on a recovery streak since the unveiling of its new “CyberCab” robotaxi model, signaling that Musk will finally solve the self-driving problem. The CEO then said 2025 could see a return to electric vehicle sales growth with new low-cost models. Long-standing concerns that the Tesla CEO might resign from the company entirely due to the loss of a 2018 compensation deal were allayed last month when Vanguard, the company’s second-largest investor, joined others in voicing his support. Finally, Tesla recently announced that it has prevented a decline in vehicle sales in the second quarter of 2024 by liquidating excess inventory.
