‘He talks a lot…I hope he will talk about climate,’ Bill Gates’ advice to Tesla CEO Elon Musk

Microsoft founder Bill Gates wants Elon Musk to talk about climate change. In an interview with Bloomberg News, Gates said that Musk’s company, Tesla, has a very important role in combating climate-related issues.

“Tesla has a huge contribution to driving the car industry towards electric,” Gates said. When asked about his disappointment towards Musk not talking about climate change, Gates said he hoped that Musk would address climate-related issues.

“He talks a lot. I hope he'll talk more about climate. You know, he's very, very smart. He's made a contribution within that area that is super important,” Gates said.

Bill Gates was also questioned about whether there were some specific topics that he wanted Elon Musk to talk about. He said, “I don't think he'll listen to anybody telling him what to talk about. He's unique, and he'll talk about whatever he feels like,” he added.

Bill Gates and Elon Musk have also publicly exchanged comments against each other earlier. Bill Gates said Musk could invest money in vaccines rather than go to Mars. "It's actually quite expensive to go to Mars. You can buy measles vaccines and save lives for $1,000 per life saved," Gates said.

The friction between the two billionaires dates back to 2022 when Musk refused to support Bill Gates’ charity after the latter had bet half a billion dollars on falling Tesla stock prices. Musk, in a message, said that he cannot take philanthropy in climate change seriously when Gates has a massive short position against Tesla.

Recently, Elon Musk announced that Tesla is planning to start "low production" of its humanoid robots for internal use from the beginning of next year. This is an update to Musk's earlier timeline, which had predicted a rollout of the robots by the end of 2024.