- Elon Musk and Bill Gates don’t seem to agree on climate change, the pandemic, or space travel.
- They’ve made public jabs at each other for years in interviews and on social media.
- Gates said Musk “was super mean to me” after he took issue with the Microsoft founder shorting Tesla stock.
Bill Gates and Elon Musk haven’t always exactly seen eye-to-eye.
While the Microsoft billionaire and the Tesla titan have never appeared to have a particularly cozy relationship, things have heated up over the past few years as the two have openly sparred about topics as varied as electric vehicles and the pandemic.
The two moguls are among the world’s wealthiest people, with Musk at No. 1 and Gates at No. 5, according to Bloomberg data as of early September.While their public spats may not always be serious, they do appear to fundamentally disagree on how to fight disease; how to address climate change; on whether cryptocurrency is legitimate; and on the importance of space travel.
In fact, new details from Walter Isaacson’s forthcoming biography on Musk suggest that their relationship behind closed doors may’ve been more tense than we would’ve thought.
Here’s where the friction between Gates and Musk began and everything that’s happened since.
At the time, they were both involved in fighting the coronavirus — Gates pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to fight the virus, while Musk was working to source and produce ventilators.
Musk had also teamed up with the German biotech firm CureVac (in which Gates is an investor) to make a device to aid in vaccine production.
At the time, they were both involved in fighting the coronavirus — Gates pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to fight the virus, while Musk was working to source and produce ventilators.
Musk had also teamed up with the German biotech firm CureVac (in which Gates is an investor) to make a device to aid in vaccine production.