Elon Musk confirms turning down philanthropic opportunity with Bill Gates
Elon Musk confirmed that he turned down a philanthropic opportunity with Bill Gates after asking the Microsoft founder if he was shorting Tesla in leaked texts.
Screenshots of the texts were shared on Twitter by the Whole Mars Catalog account, which tagged Musk and asked if they were real.
The first screenshot appears to show Gates texting Musk to confirm a meeting date and time, to which Musk responds, “Great.” Another screenshot shows a text message purportedly from Gates that says “just landed,” to which Musk responds “cool.”
Musk then texted back, asking, “Do you still have a half billion-dollar short position against Tesla?”
“I’m sorry to say I haven’t closed it out,” she says. According to the screenshots, Gates responded, saying, “I would like to discuss philanthropic possibilities.”
A short position typically means that an investor sells a borrowed stock with the intention of repurchasing it later at a lower price, essentially betting that the stock’s value will fall.
