Elon Musk has said that
Bill Gates, despite founding one of the biggest tech companies – Microsoft is “not strong in the sciences”. The Tesla CEO made the remark during a recent episode of the All-In Podcast, where he spoke about his past interactions with the billionaire philanthropist.
“You’d think that someone like Bill Gates, who clearly started a technology company that’s one of the biggest companies in the world — Microsoft — would be really quite strong in the sciences,” Musk said. “But actually, my at least direct conversations with him have [shown] he is not strong in the sciences.”
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The comment comes amid a long history of public disagreements between Musk and Gates over topics such as electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, and philanthropy. The two have previously traded jabs over Tesla’s environmental impact and Gates’ investments in competing clean-energy technologies.
Musk further shared an anecdote about a meeting with Bill Gates, saying the Microsoft co-founder once dismissed the possibility of Tesla’s long-range electric semi-truck working as claimed.
Speaking on the podcast, Musk said Gates visited him at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Austin, where the two discussed electric vehicles.
“He came to visit me at the Tesla Gigafactory in Austin and was telling me that it's impossible to have a long-range semi truck,” Musk said.
“I was like, well, but we literally have them. And you can drive them, and Pepsi is literally using them right now,” Musk added, referring to PepsiCo’s fleet of Tesla Semis currently in operation. “You can drive them yourself or send someone. Obviously, Bill Gates can drive it himself, but you can send a trusted person to drive the truck and verify that it can do the things that we say it's doing.”
According to Musk, Gates refused to believe him. “And he’s like, ‘No, no, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work.’ And I’m like, ‘Um, okay.’ I’m like kind of stuck there,” Musk said.
In
In Walter Isaacson's 2023 biography of the Tesla CEO, described Elon Musk as "super mean" and advised not taking him "too personally". The tension between the two billionaires began when Gates took a short position against Tesla stock. When Musk later asked Gates in private texts (which became public later) if he still held a "$500 million short position against Tesla," Gates confirmed, "Sorry to say I haven't closed it yet. I would like to discuss philanthropy possibilities."