New Elon Musk Biography Details Expletive-Filled Fight Between Tesla CEO and Bill Gates

Walter Isaacson’s new biography of Elon Musk has revealed many juicy tidbits about the Tesla CEO, none more gripping than a reportedly heated exchange with fellow billionaire Bill Gates.

An excerpt of the book, published by CNBC, details efforts by Gates to channel some of Musk’s fortune into charitable efforts. When long-time philanthropist Gates ran into Musk at a conference, he offered to set up a meeting to discuss charities as well as climate change. Because Musk had fired his assistant, he and Gates texted each other to determine a date.

At the meeting, Musk wasted no time. He reportedly told Gates that charity is “bullshit,” having determined that only a small fraction of each dollar makes an impact. Nevertheless, Gates offered to provide Musk a “super-long description of [donation] ideas, including organizations benefiting climate-change resistant seeds, American schools, and a cure for AIDS.

Musk didn’t come to discuss charity, though. He wanted to interrogate Gates about the latter’s shorting of Tesla stock. (Isaacson notes that “short-sellers occupied [Musk’s] innermost circle of hell.”) Gates frankly admitted it was business, not personal, and said he felt there was more money to be made short-selling the stock. “I apologized to him,” Gates told Isaacson. “Once he heard I’d shorted the stock, he was super mean to me, but he’s super mean to so many people, so you can’t take it too personally.”

A few weeks later, Gates sent Musk the promised list of worthy causes. Instead of addressing the charities, Musk fired off another text: “Do you still have a half billion dollar short position against Tesla?” Gates’ son helped him craft a reply: “Sorry to say I haven’t closed it out,” Gates quipped. “I would like to discuss philanthropy possibilities.”

“Sorry,” Musk immediately replied. “I cannot take your philanthropy on climate seriously when you have a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change.” Musk then took to Twitter, the platform he would later rename X, to humiliate the Microsoft founder in an adolescent post comparing him to the pregnant man emoji. “In case u [sic] need to lose a boner fast,” it was captioned.

Isaacson surmises that neither man could see the other one’s side, with Gates looking at the business side and Musk caught up in the personal component. “At this point, I am convinced that he is categorically insane (and an asshole to the core),” he texted his biographer directly after his second text exchange with Gates. Canadian musician Grimes, Musk’s former partner and mother to three of his children, succinctly summarized the episode for Isaacson: “I imagine it’s a little bit of a dick-measuring contest.”

Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk is on sale now.