Elon Musk's biographical book reveals the origin of the feud between the founder of Windows and the current owner of Twitter, now known as X.
In a new preview of the promising content of the book written by journalist Walter Isaacson, the origin of the rivalry between Musk and the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, was known. Both magnates would have had a fight over Gates' lack of trust in one of the controversial Elon Musk's companies.
According to the biography, Gates made an investment of $500 million in April 2022, betting on the fall of Tesla shares in a “short selling” strategy. This action was enough for Musk to refuse to support a philanthropic request extended by the Microsoft magnate.
The origin of the Musk-Gates rivalry
According to the narrative, Bill Gates approached Musk to request a donation for refugees, American education, the search for a cure for AIDS, the eradication of mosquitoes and combating climate change.
“Once he found out that he had shorted the stock he was very mean to me, but he is very mean to so many people, so you can't take it personally,” Gates shared with Isaacson.
Elon Musk would have responded to Gates' request with subtle arrogance and in an attitude of defense of his company founded in July 2003.
"I'm sorry. "I can't take your climate philanthropy seriously when you have a huge position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve the climate problem," Musk responded in a text message.
For his part, Gates defended his bet by pointing out that his inclination was not ideological but merely technical in matters of supply and demand, since he anticipated that the supply of electric vehicles would soon exceed demand and cause a drop in Tesla prices.
The rivalry between both millionaires would not have ended in such an exchange, but rather, during the same month, Musk attacked Gates for his influence on the social network Twitter (now X). So far, the outcome of this rivalry between tycoons is unknown, however, the publication of Musk's biographical book promises to unravel more secrets from the business life of the most controversial millionaire today.
