BILL GATES has opened up about his ongoing feud with fellow billionaire Elon Musk.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the 66-year-old responded to allegations that he had bet against Tesla stock.
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Last week, Musk, who is CEO of the U.S. electric car firm, accused Gates of “shorting” Tesla stock.
That’s a way of making money by waging that a company will lose value. Musk, 55, has also mocked Gates’ weight on Twitter.
“There’s no need for him to be nice to me,” Gates said.
Musk overtook Gates last year to become the world’s richest person as Tesla’s value soared during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He has said that shorting half a billion dollars of Tesla stock undermines Gates’ environmental philanthropy.
Speaking to the BBC’s Mishal Husain, Gates declined to say whether he was shorting Tesla stock.
“That has nothing to do with climate change. I have ways of diversifying,” he said when asked about the reports.
Tesla is worth $962billion, making it one of the world’s most valuable companies.
But Gates warned that rising competition in the sector could mean that the company will struggle in future.
“The popularity of electric cars will lead to more competition for selling those cars,” he said.
“So there’s a difference between electric cars being adopted, and companies becoming infinitely valuable.”
The squabbling moguls have been at each other’s throats for months.
It all kicked off in 2020 after Musk made a string of questionable comments and false predictions about the pandemic.
Gates, who was involved in efforts to combat the virus, told CNBC at the time: “Elon’s positioning is to maintain a high level of outrageous comments.
“He’s not much involved in vaccines. He makes a great electric car. And his rockets work well. So he’s allowed to say these things.
“I hope that he doesn’t confuse areas he’s not involved in too much.”
Musk later said his rival had “no clue” about electric cars and that his conversations with Gates had “been underwhelming”.
Last week, the SpaceX boss tweeted an unflattering photo of Gates alongside the pregnant man emoji, captioning the post: “in case u need to lose a boner fast.”
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