Elon Musk Exposes Hypocrisy Of Bill Gates' Climate-Change Fighting Stance With Massive Tesla Short Position

Bill Gates has often been panned by proponents of conspiracy theories for his vaccine initiatives, and some have also harped on his double standards with respect to climate change.

What Happened: Grow America’s Infrastructure Now, a coalition focused on promoting infrastructure, recently questioned why Gates won’t stop flying private jets after the billionaire called for doing “almost everything” to fight climate change.

The coalition shared a video drawing attention to the carbon emitted by the private jets of billionaires, including Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Bloomberg founder Michael Bloomberg. The clip also showed Gates suggesting that flying a private jet doesn’t make him part of the problem as he invests billions to fight climate change.

“Use #BeyondHyprcrisy to call out the worst offenders,” the coalition said in the video.

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Musk Schools Gates: Replying to the video, Elon Musk said “a step in the right direction” for Gates would be “not to have a massive short position” against Tesla, his flagship electric vehicle venture.

Not having a massive short position against Tesla would be a step in the right direction!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 27, 2023

Musk was referring to a short position the Microsoft co-founder has in Tesla. A chat between the two that was leaked on Twitter in April 2022 showed Musk refusing to work with Gates on philanthropy or climate change initiatives, citing the latter seeking profit from a fall in the EV maker's stock.

The Tesla CEO pointed out that Gates’ Tesla short bet is contradictory to the latter’s desire to fight climate change and that he should be supporting the company’s EV initiatives.

In an interview with the French YouTube channel "Hugo Decrypte," Gates reasoned that his short position may not hurt Musk. “Somebody shorting his stock doesn't slow him down or hurt him in any way,” he said.

Bloomberg reported earlier this month that Musk himself was a frequent flier in his private jets in 2022, with some of the flights lasting as little as 13 minutes.

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Photo: Greg Rubenstein and TED Conference on flickr and Shutterstock