Clash of the Billionaires: Bill Gates Says Musk Is “Mean” to Him, but He’s “Brilliant”
Bill Gates calls Elon Musk brilliant even as Musk attacks him over a Tesla short that may have cost Gates billions. Their feud reveals two competing visions of wealth, legacy, and what it actually means to change the world.
Bill Gates and Elon Musk have clashed over a Tesla short, over philanthropy and over politics, and Gates still keeps coming back to the same view of Musk: he is brilliant. Investors should care about that tension because Musk controls two of the most valuable companies on the market. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA | TSLA Price Prediction) is worth about $1.43 trillion, and SpaceX (NASDAQ:SPCX) is worth about $1.14 trillion. Barchart put Gates’ comments back in circulation on October 15, 2026.
Bill Gates Says Despite Elon Musk Being Mean to Him, He’s Still ‘In Awe’ of His Work. ‘He’s Brilliant, He’s Rich, He’s Influential’
Gates made the remarks in an interview with The Independent published February 3, 2025, one day before his memoir Source Code came out. “He’s been nice to me at times, and mean to me at times,” Gates said. “I will try and work with him because he’s brilliant, he’s rich, he’s influential.”
Two Billionaires, Two Opposite Ideas of a Legacy
Gates built Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and then turned to philanthropy, where his wealth goes into a foundation that is scheduled to close. Musk puts his money back into new ventures: electric cars, rockets, satellites, humanoid robots and AI data centers, while Gates is giving his fortune away on a deadline. Musk keeps reinvesting his into the next moonshot.
How a Tesla Short Keeps the Feud Going
Musk has attacked Gates many times over a short position against Tesla stock. In November 2025, Elon Musk said Gates should exit his “crazy short” or add to his $1.5 billion in losses. In December 2025, Elon Musk claimed the position “might have cost over $10 billion by now.” Both figures come from Musk.
Tesla’s stock has given Musk less to boast about lately. Shares closed at $362.44 and are down 19.41% this year. In Q2, Tesla reported revenue of $28.24B, up 25.5%. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.33 missed the $0.54 estimate. Operating margin contracted to 1.4%, and free cash flow came in at -$1.09B. Even after the drop, the stock trades at about 377 times earnings.
Musk’s Big Projects: Roadsters, Robotaxis and Gigawatts
Tesla revealed the next-generation Roadster on October 15, 2026 at a SpaceX test site in McGregor, Texas. Tesla’s timer showed it going from zero to 60 miles per hour in under a second. Elon Musk said it would enter production in 2028, and CNBC reported reservations require a $50,000 deposit. Tesla did not announce a price. Musk said the Roadster will be the last Tesla built for a human driver, but CNBC said the car is unlikely to change Tesla’s financials in a significant way.
Robotaxis matter much more to the business. Tesla runs its robotaxi service in seven U.S. metros, and active FSD subscriptions reached 1.48 million, up 56%. Musk spoke about this on the July earnings call. He said Tesla wants to scale the service “as fast as humanly possible” while working through the “March of Nines of reliability.”
At SpaceX, the AI segment brought in $2.56B in Q2, up 247%. The company spent $15.83B on AI computing in the quarter. SpaceX is aiming 2GW of compute by year end and 10-20GW by end of 2027. The stock closed at $148.62, below its $160.95 close on June 12. Barron’s pointed to CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV), linking the recent weakness to CoreWeave’s troubles. A gigawatt-scale compute expansion needs power, cooling and networking. We rounded up seven of those suppliers in a free AI infrastructure report, since those inputs have to come from somebody.
Gates Foundation Races to Give Billions Away by 2045
The Gates Foundation plans to give away $9 billion in 2026 as it prepares to close in 2045. Bill Gates is also spending $1 billion to keep AI from extending the global divide. In August, the Gates Foundation gave $540 million to a University of Washington health institute, the largest gift in the university’s history.
Whose Legacy Will Last Longer?
Musk is building rockets, robotaxis and AI data centers, and paying for them with heavy capex. Gates is trying to spend a fortune well before a fixed deadline. In our view, Gates’ legacy is the safer one. Vaccines and health research keep paying off after the money runs out, while Musk’s legacy depends on autonomy and gigawatt-scale computing delivering returns that Tesla’s thin Q2 margin has yet to show.
Musk’s ceiling is higher, though. If robotaxis scale and SpaceX’s computing expansion reaches its 2027 aiming, history may decide that Gates was right to call him brilliant. Investors should keep an eye on Tesla’s next earnings report for signs that robotaxi growth is starting to show up in margins.
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AJ spent 10 years writing about financial markets at The Motley Fool. His coverage centers on technology stocks and the broader macroeconomic trends, from interest rates to geopolitics, that shape where markets are headed next. AJ is drawn to the stories where big-picture economics and individual companies collide.
