Elon Musk stated in leaked texts that he turned down a philanthropic chance with Bill Gates after asking if the Microsoft founder was shorting Tesla

Image Credit: Susan Walsh/AP; Mike Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times

Elon Musk confirmed on Friday that texts indicating he turned down a charity opportunity with Bill Gates due to the latter's Tesla short position are genuine.

A Twitter account called Whole Mars Catalog tweeted screenshots of the texts, tagging Musk and asking if they were real.

Though the hue of the text message boxes suggests they were taken on Musk's phone, the source of the screenshots was not immediately known.

The first screenshot appears to show Gates texting Musk to confirm the meeting date and time, to which Musk replied, "Great." Another picture shows a communication from Gates that says "just landed," to which Musk replies "awesome."

"Do you still have a half-billion-dollar short bet against Tesla?" Musk followed up with a text.

According to the screenshots, Gates answered, "Sorry to say I haven't closed it off," and added, "I would like to talk charitable possibilities."

"Sorry, but I can't take your climate change philanthropy seriously when you have a big short position on Tesla, the company doing the most to address climate change," Musk responded.

So apparently Bill Gates hit up @elonmusk to discuss “philanthropy on climate change” but Elon asked if he still had a half billion dollar short position on $TSLA.

Bill said he hasn’t closed it out, so Elon told him to get lost. No idea if this is true lol pic.twitter.com/iuHkDG3bAd

— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) April 22, 2022

Yeah, but I didn’t leak it to NYT. They must have got it through friends of friends.

I heard from multiple people at TED that Gates still had half billion short against Tesla, which is why I asked him, so it’s not exactly top secret.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022

A short position is when an investor sells a stock they've borrowed with the intention of repurchasing it at a lower price later, effectively betting on the stock's value falling.

Musk responded to the screenshots by tweeting that they were genuine but that he had not leaked them, adding that they must have spread "via friends of friends."

"I heard from numerous people at TED that Gates still had a half-billion-dollar short against Tesla, which is why I approached him," Musk continued. 

Although the exact date of the text exchange is unknown, Musk stated on Joe Rogan's podcast in February 2021 that he had heard Gates was betting against Tesla in the stock market.

Musk tweeted a meme of Gates Friday night, comparing the Microsoft founder to the pregnant guy emoji and writing, "in case u need to lose a boner fast," shortly after commenting on the texts.

in case u need to lose a boner fast pic.twitter.com/fcHiaXKCJi

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 23, 2022

Musk and Gates, two of the world's wealthiest people, have openly feuded in the past over issues such as electric vehicles, COVID-19, and Mars colonization.

Requests for comment from Insider were not returned immediately by Tesla or the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.