If you claim you're a philanthropist and concerned about climate change, I would call it very hypocritical if you are actively betting against those who are trying to make a difference for your cause. If Musk had a history of hanging out with Epstein, there is zero doubt you would be all over that.
Gates isn’t “claiming” to be a philanthropist. He is one, by any sensible definition of the word. And I don’t think Tesla’s stock price should be viewed as a reliable indicator of how well we’re doing combatting climate change. I wouldn’t care, because I don’t believe in guilt by association, and have expressed that sentiment here many times in the past. Maybe we differ there.
That's a quick conclusion based on a few tweets. The volume of evidence suggests Gate is no such thing. He gave away billions. We don't know why Gate shorted Telsa and whatever that reason, it's an investment strategy first and foremost. It's a leap to connect investment to anything other than it being an investment.
I am still not seeing how Gates selling a bunch of Tesla stock as an investment strategy indicates he doesn’t care about climate change action, but maybe I’m not understanding the mechanics of shorting. Didn’t Musk say he was considering selling a huge amount of Tesla stock as part of his bid to buy Twitter, which would drive the Tesla stock price down?
He was basically making a massive financial bet against Tesla succeeding as a company. Tesla is the largest EV company and has advanced non-fossil fueled cars more than anyone else. So Gates would have massively benefitted from traditional fossil fuel car makers beating Tesla. It seems quite hypocritical by Gates to go to Musk for donations while making a huge bet against the company that constitutes most of Musk's wealth.
Isn’t it more that he’s making a bet that Tesla was overvalued — something that Musk himself had tweeted not that long back?
Would you bet against your SO or good friend? Even if they were over valued? Overvaluation + no/low demand = bad Overvaluation + high demand = good If Gates profited 500 million from a short, which a sell pressure as such could move the market, that is 500 million Tesla could have used for capital expansion or other forms of reinvestment promoting EV's or other investments. I get it. You do not like Musk because he says mean things about Democrats. Gates cares more about money than he does promoting cleaner energy. I have no problem with that. He needs to stop pretending he cares about the environment.
Well, this is where my shortcomings in understanding how all these financial instruments work shows up, I guess. So, Gates sold 500 million of Tesla stock. Are you assuming that money is not being used in a way that would benefit clean energy initiatives? Or is buying Tesla the only way to do this in your mind? And, presumably, he will buy back the Tesla shares at some price less than 500 million (if I’m understanding how this works) — so how is that even a net loss of 500 million for Tesla?
OK — but is the concern here that this is hurting the health of the company as it can drive down the value of Tesla stock? I mean, I understand why Musk wouldn’t appreciate that, because it’s his company. But it is odd to me that this would be his big beef when very recently he has been talking very publicly about doing a massive sell off of Tesla in order to fund his Twitter bid. And, again, the idea that selling a bunch of Tesla stock means you don’t actually care about clean energy seems pretty narrow minded. At the least, one should consider the totality of his investments (how much does he have invested in clean energy sector and how had that evolved in recent years).
Ok — help me understand how this works, if you don’t mind. Does this not mean that he borrowed a bunch of Tesla stock, sold it for 500m, and he intends to buy the same number of shares in the future at a hopefully lower price? The net effect of all of this on Tesla’s business and growth potential is not clear to me. The net effect on clean energy innovation is even less clear (Gates has his own clean energy fund that he’s investing heavily in).
https://cleantechnica.com/2022/04/24/bill-gates-500-million-tesla-short-is-awkward-hypocritical/ Also: https://www.opindia.com/2022/04/tes...es-here-is-why-he-is-angry-microsoft-founder/
We really do. People really picking a side with Gates v Musk like either of these dudes have people's best interests in mind.
