After Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that Bill Gates has been betting against the electric car maker in the stock market, we have been trying to find out if that was true.
Now, Gates practically admits that he was short selling Tesla (TSLA) shares.
As we reported earlier, Musk and Gates do not always agree.
Gates had previously made some comments about electric trucks like the Tesla Semi not being viable, and Musk countered those comments recently, but he also added that he believes Gates had a big short position at Tesla (TSLA) at some point.
That was a surprising statement: one of the richest and most influential men on earth, who is also a big voice in the climate change community, literally betting against Tesla.
Recently, the founder of Microsoft said better things about Tesla and Elon Musk while on a tour to promote his new book.
We report on him saying that “what Elon did with Tesla is one of the biggest contributions to climate change that anyone has ever done” on the Sway podcast last week.
But everyone is asking him if it is true that he sold Tesla’s shares, and Gates has somehow avoided the question.
Now in a new interview on Bloomberg, Gates practically admitted that he was selling Tesla shares when asked directly about this:
Well, you know, I think Tesla is an incredible company. I wish I had or been bought more (laughs), but it’s great. I have many relatives who own Teslas that I helped buy for them, so nothing but positive thoughts about Tesla and its role.
Nothing but positive thoughts, but he is not denying having sold Tesla, and he saying he was not on the “long side” could be admitting that he was selling.
Here is the relevant segment of the interview:
Gates had another opportunity to deny his alleged short position on Tesla a week ago on CNBC and he dodged it.
Electrek‘stake
I am surprised and disappointed with Gates here. As I stated earlier, I don’t think he would be the type of Tesla shorts.
Unlike Elon and many people in public after what happened with Gamestop, Reddit and Robinhood, I don’t have a real problem with a short circuit. I think there are artificial bombs and fraud on the market, and I think it’s okay to bet against them.
But when it comes to selling short to Tesla, it’s a little bit different for me.
I understand if you believe the company is overvalued and you want to make money from a correction, but I feel that betting against Tesla’s shares is also betting against accelerating the electrical transition.
Tesla used its high valuation to raise money and accelerate its mission.
I wouldn’t want to bet against that, and it looks like Gates is, or at one point was, okay with that.
Although to be fair, it seems that he changed his mind. Maybe other Tesla shorts should do the same.
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