Bill Gates and Elon Musk have a lot in common: they are rich, determined, and fascinated by computers and technology. In a new biography, Walter Isaacson explains why there was a falling out between the two and how violently Musk dealt.
The visit
“Hey, I’d like to come over and talk about philanthropy and climate,” Bill Gates told Musk when they attended the same meeting in 2022. After his share sales (meaning the sale of Tesla shares, editor’s note), Musk decided for tax reasons to pay $5.7 billion into a charitable fund set up specifically for this purpose. Gates, who was primarily concerned with philanthropy at the time, had a number of suggestions. They had exchanged friendships on a number of occasions, including when Gates visited SpaceX with his son Rory. Musk, who had always liked the Microsoft operating system – unlike most techies – could easily identify with someone who had built a company in a relentless and “hardcore” way.
They arranged a meeting and Gates, who employs a team of assistants, said his office would reach out to Musk’s appointment managers. “I don’t have anyone like that,” Musk replied. He had separated from his personal assistant so that he could have full control of his calendar. “Your secretary should just call me directly.” Gates, who thought it was “bizarre,” felt it was inappropriate to have one of his assistants call Musk and did it himself. The two arranged a time to meet in Austin. “Just landed,” Gates wrote on the afternoon of March 9, 2022. “Cool,” replied Musk, sending Omead Afshar (a close confidant, editor’s note) to the Gigafactory entrance to receive Gates.
Aside from the fact that they both belong to the exclusive club of the richest people in the world, Musk and Gates have a few other things in common. Both think analytically, have an extremely high level of concentration and are confident in their intellect in a way that borders on arrogance. Neither of them tolerates stupidity. All of these characteristics made it almost inevitable that sooner or later there would be a conflict between them, and that’s exactly what happened when Musk gave Gates a tour of the factory. Gates argued that batteries would not be able to power large tractor-trailers and that solar energy would not make a fundamental contribution to solving the climate problem. “I showed him the numbers,” Gates says. “I definitely knew more about this area.”
He also hit Musk hard about Mars. “I don’t know much about Mars,” Gates told me. “He’s exaggerating the Mars thing. I’ve had it explained to me how he imagines it, and I think it’s pretty bizarre. He has this crazy idea about a possible nuclear war on Earth and people living on Mars and then come back after we kill each other.”
“He was pretty mean to me”
Still, Gates was impressed by Musk’s factory and his detailed knowledge of all the machines and processes. He was also impressed by SpaceX and its use of a constellation of Starlink satellites to provide internet from space. “Starlink is the implementation of what I tried to do twenty years ago with Teledesic.”
Towards the end of the tour they talked about philanthropic projects. Musk said most of it was “bullshit.” According to his estimate, 80 cents of every dollar invested was wasted. He could do more to combat climate change by investing his money in Tesla. “I’m going to present to you five projects worth 100 million each,” Gates replied. It was about money for refugees, American schools, a cure for AIDS, the eradication of certain species of mosquitoes through gene drive and genetically modified seeds that are resistant to the effects of climate change. Gates is very meticulous about his philanthropic projects, and he promised Musk “a super-long description of the ideas.”
There was still a sensitive topic that needed to be addressed. Gates had short-sold Tesla shares and bet a large sum on falling prices and gambled away. By the time he visited Austin, he had already lost $1.5 billion. When Musk heard about the matter, he was seething. In his eyes, short sellers deserved a special place in hell. Gates apologized, but that didn’t appease Musk. “After he found out about the short selling, he was pretty nasty to me, but he’s nasty to a lot of people, so you shouldn’t take it too personally,” Gates says.
The dispute was an expression of opposing views. When I asked Gates about the reason for the short selling, he explained that he expected the supply of electric cars to exceed demand and therefore prices to fall. I nodded, but my question remained the same. Why the short selling? Gates looked at me as if I didn’t understand and as if the answer wasn’t obvious: he said he expected to make money by shorting Tesla shares.
This kind of thinking was completely alien to Musk. He believed in the mission of leading the world to electric mobility and put all his available money into this goal, even if it didn’t seem like a safe investment. “How can you claim that you care about fighting climate change and then actively diminish the overall investment in the company that is doing the most to address it?” he asked me a few days after Gates’ visit. “That’s pure hypocrisy. Why do people enrich themselves from the failure of a sustainable car company?” Grimes (Musk’s partner at the time, editor’s note) has her own opinion on it: “It’s probably a bit about the cock comparison.”
“Completely insane”
In mid-April, Gates contacted Musk again and, as promised, sent Musk the list of potential philanthropic investments he had compiled. Musk responded with a simple question: “Are you still betting half a billion against Tesla?” Gates was sitting in the dining room of the Four Seasons in Washington with his graduating son Rory when the reply came. Laughing, he showed it to his son and asked him for advice on how to respond.
“Just say yes and then quickly change the subject,” Rory suggested. Gates tried that. “Unfortunately I have to admit that I haven’t changed anything yet,” he typed. “I would like to talk about philanthropy.” That went wrong. Musk immediately fired back: “I can’t take your commitment to the climate seriously when at the same time you’re betting a huge sum against Tesla – the company that’s doing the most to solve the climate problem.”
When he’s angry, Musk can get mean, especially on Twitter. He posted a photo of Gates in a polo shirt that showed his stomach, making him look a little pregnant. The comment: “In case you need to get rid of a boner quickly.”
Gates was genuinely amazed that short selling made Musk so angry. And Musk was equally irritated that Gates didn’t understand this. “I am now convinced that he is completely insane (and an asshole to the core),” Musk wrote to me after the conversation with Gates. “I really wanted to like him (sigh).”
Gates’ verdict was much more merciful. Later that year, he attended a dinner in Washington where some people criticized Musk. “You can think what you want about Elon’s behavior,” Gates said, “but there is no one in our time who has challenged the boundaries of science and innovation like he has.
“The Visit” is a chapter from “Elon Musk. The Biography” by Walter Isaacson. It will be published on September 12th by C. Bertelsmann, has 832 pages and costs 38 euros.