Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reportedly declined a meeting to discuss climate change philanthropy with Bill Gates because the latter admitted he still holds a short position on Tesla stock.
As per a series of leaked text messages, Gates was proposing a potential meeting with Musk “to discuss philanthropy possibilities,” but Musk was not willing to do so after Gates admitted he still has not closed out his short position on Tesla, reports Teslarati.
“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,” Musk replied to Gates, declining the invitation.
There were rumours Gates did hold a short position against Tesla, but he never truly confirmed whether he had any sort of investment in the automaker’s stock.
During a February 2021 interview with CNBC, Gates declined to talk about his position.
“Yeah, I’m not, I don’t talk about my investments, but I think he should be very proud of what he’s done,” the Microsoft co-founder said earlier.
However, only a few days later in an interview, Gates shed more light on his position, basically admitting to shorting the stock.