Elon Musk on Friday said texts that show he turned down a philanthropic opportunity with Bill Gates over the latter’s short position on Tesla are legitimate.
Screenshots of the texts were shared on Twitter by the account @WholeMarsBlog that tagged Musk and asked if they were real.
The origin of the screenshots was not immediately clear, though they appear to have first been published by DeFiance Media. The color of the text message boxes suggests they were taken on Musk’s phone.
The first screenshot appears to show a text from Gates confirming a day and time to meet, to which Musk responds “Great.” Another screenshot shows a text, supposedly from Gates, saying “just landed” and Musk responding “cool.”
Musk then sent a follow up text, writing: “Do you still have a half billion dollar short position against Tesla?”
“Sorry to say I haven’t closed it out,” Gates responded, according to the screenshots, adding: “I would like to discuss philanthropy possibilities.”
Musk replied: “Sorry, but I cannot take your philanthropy on climate change seriously when you have a massive short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change.”
