
It started with a stock short and ended with memes, jabs, and one of the messiest billionaire feuds in recent memory. Bill Gates isn’t new to criticism, but he didn’t expect a full-on cold war with Elon Musk. At least, not over Tesla. “Once he heard I’d shorted the stock, he was super mean to me,” Gates told Walter Isaacson, the author of Musk’s 2023 biography. Then came the part that made the quote instantly viral: “But he’s super mean to so many people, so you can’t take it too personally.” Ga