Elon Musk warns Bill Gates: You will be ‘obliterated’ if you do this to Tesla stock

Elon Musk warned Bill Gates saying that the Microsoft co-founder faces annihilation if he makes any further attempt to bet against Tesla. Asserting that he will transform Tesla into an AI giant colossus worth $30 trillion, Elon Musk said, “Once Tesla fully solves autonomy and has [its droid] Optimus in volume production, anyone still holding a short position will be obliterated."

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He added, “Even Gates"- referring to Bill Gates. The rivalry between the two came to the fore after an exchange leaked in 2022 showing that Elon Musk refused to support Gates’ charitable work after learning that the latter still had a half billion dollars riding on a bet that the Tesla stock price would fall.

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In text messages, Elon Musk wrote, “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."

Tesla has been the worst-performing name in the S&P 500 this year as the company's vehicle sales fell 6.6% through the first half of the year, its Cybertruck has struggled to meet its high expectations and the firm buried Tesla’s target of boosting volumes from 1.8 million EVs last year to 20 million by 2030.

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Elon Musk has teased the unveiling of a new “CyberCab” robotaxi model, implying he will finally solve autonomy and also said that 2025 could see a return to EV sales growth with new low-cost models.