Elon Musk says Microsoft founder Bill Gates may have been $10 billion richer if he …

Elon Musk has once again criticised Microsoft founder Bill Gates saying he may have lost more than $10 billion by betting against Tesla. The tech billionaire was responding to an X (formerly Twitter) post which said that “if Bill Gates hadn’t listened to Warren Buffett and hadn’t sold his Microsoft shares to diversify, he would be the world’s first trillionaire, worth twice as much as Elon.

” Musk replied to the post, writing “Bill Gates placed a massive short bet against Tesla of ~1% of our total shares, which might have cost him over $10B by now”. Gates was the world's richest person from 1995 to 2010, and again from 2013 to 2017. As of the 2025 Forbes billionaires list, Bill Gates is ranked 18th with a net worth of $103.8 billion, declining by around $24 billion in 2024.Gates in 2022 revealed that he held a short position against Elon Musk-owned Tesla, which contributed to public tensions between the two billionaires.

Musk has time and again criticized the bet several times. While Gates defended his short position against Tesla stating that his investment decisions are not personal and are part of broader financial strategies.

What is short position

A short position is when an investor bets that a stock will fall in value. The investor borrows shares, sells them at the current price, and later buys them back to return to the lender. If the price drops, the investor buys the shares back for less and makes a profit.

If the price rises, the investor must buy them back at a higher price and take a loss. A short position is essentially a wager against the company’s stock.

When Elon Musk said Bill Gates will go bankrupt if ...

As mentioned above, this is not the first time when Musk has called out Gates’ short position against Tesla. In December 2024, the Tesla CEO wrote that Bill Gates could go bankrupt if it becomes the world's most valuable company. ““If Tesla does become the world’s most valuable company by far, that short position will bankrupt even Bill Gates,” he then said.In an old post dated September 12, Musk said “Taking out a short position against Tesla, as Gates did, results in the highest return only if a company goes bankrupt! Gates placed a massive bet on Tesla dying when our company was at one of its weakest moments several years ago. Such a big short position also drives the stock down for everyday investors.”Adding further, he said, “To the best of my knowledge, Gates *still* has that massive bet against Tesla on the table. Someone should ask him if he does. The lack of self-awareness and hypocrisy of Gates who had the nerve to ask me to donate to his mostly window-dressing environmental causes, while simultaneously aiming to make $500M from Tesla's demise”.