Elon Musk is lashing out at Bill Gates after the Microsoft co-founder accused him of endangering the lives of vulnerable children worldwide by pushing to dismantle the US foreign aid apparatus.
“Who does Bill Gates think he is to make comments about the welfare of children?” Musk said during an interview on Tuesday at the Bloomberg Qatar Economic Forum, responding to Gates’ assertion that Musk’s policies were harming the world’s most impoverished communities.
Musk, who pledged to continue leading Tesla as its CEO for at least the next five years, added: “Show us any evidence whatsoever that that is true. It’s false.”
The Post has sought comment from Gates and Musk.
Musk’s attack against Gates came after the software mogul gave a blistering interview to the Financial Times in which he accused the Tesla CEO and DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) chief of recklessly gutting US foreign aid programs under President Trump’s directive.
“The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,” Gates said, pointing to cuts in funding to the US Agency for International Development (USAID), including programs that provided HIV-prevention medication to mothers in Mozambique.
“I’d love for him to go in and meet the children that have now been infected with HIV because he cut that money.”
Gates said the decision to slash USAID funding stemmed from conspiracy theories reportedly circulated in Musk’s inner circle — specifically, that US foreign aid was being used to send condoms to Hamas in Gaza.
In February, Musk’s agency declared that it was “time for [USAID] to die,” and defunded numerous programs. He later brandished a chainsaw onstage alongside Argentine President Javier Milei during the Conservative Political Action Conference in a theatrical celebration of budget cuts.
In defending the cuts, a White House spokesperson described Musk as “a patriot working to fulfill President Trump’s mission to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Gates, however, said the policies had “real-world consequences,” noting that life-saving vaccines were expiring in warehouses due to lack of distribution funding.
The escalating feud between Musk and Gates is the latest flare-up in a years-long clash between the two tech titans.
Their disputes have ranged from public health policy and philanthropy to finance — including a 2022 episode in which Musk publicly mocked Gates after learning the Microsoft founder had shorted Tesla stock.
The escalating feud between Musk and Gates is the latest flare-up in a years-long clash between the two tech titans.
Their public tensions date back to at least 2020, when Gates publicly cast doubt on the viability of electric long-haul trucks — only for Musk to fire back on Twitter (now X), calling Gates “underwhelming” and posting memes mocking his appearance.
When Gates admitted to shorting Tesla stock despite professing support for climate initiatives, Musk accused him of hypocrisy.
“He had a big short position against Tesla, which is the company doing the most to solve climate change,” Musk tweeted in 2022. “This is not cool.”
Musk also once called Gates “a knucklehead” during a Clubhouse chat and mocked his knowledge of electric vehicles, while Gates has criticized Musk for downplaying COVID-19 and spreading misinformation during the pandemic.
Gates notably warned that Musk should stay in his lane when it came to public health, saying, “He’s not much involved in vaccines.”
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