Bill Gates questioned whether Elon Musk’s current precedences would make him a good philanthropist, taking issue with his fellow billionaire’s ambition to dispatch people to Mars.
In an interview with the AFLM, set to be broadcast on Friday evening, the Microsoft co-founder was asked if he thought Musk would qualify as a philanthropist. Gates responded saying he doesn’t think Musk is one presently but that this may change in future.
Holdings like Tesla are having a positive impact, verily without being a form of philanthropy, ”Gates said. “I think some day he’ll join the rank of philanthropists using his cleverness, ”he added.
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He questioned the billionaire’s vision of colonizing Mars. Musk’s space exploration venture, SpaceX, is spending aggressively on spacecraft and rockets in the possibility that it’ll one day consign humans to the red earth.
Asked by a correspondent Amol Rajan if going to Mars was a good use of money, Gates said “Not in my view.
He added that financing vaccine development was a better use of cash than putting people on Mars.
It’s actually fairly extravagant to go to Mars, ”he said. “You can buy measles vaccines and save lives for a thousand dollars per life saved.
It just kind of grounds you. Don’t go to Mars.
Gates and Musk have oftentimes feuded over the years. In April, Musk said he asked Gates if he was short- selling Tesla — in other words, betting that the price of the electric carmaker’s stock would fall.
When Gates revealed in 2020 that he bought himself an all-electric Porsche
Taycan, a Twitter user asked “I wonder why Bill Gates decided to go with the Taycan rather of a Tesla.
Musk responded in a tweet “My discussions with Gates have been underwhelming (to be honest).
Musk has also antecedently assumed on the possibility of Gates shorting his company’s stock. Asked about those comments and whether he was short Tesla, Gates told AFLM last year “I do n’t talk about my investments but I think he should be veritably proud of what he’s done.
In a AFLM interview also in February 2021, Gates said that he wished he’d “ been more on the long side of Tesla when asked about Musk’s claims.
