Billionaire tech founder Bill Gates seems just as baffled as foreign voters when it comes to Elon Musk’s dabbling in overseas politics.
In recent months the CEO of Tesla has launched attacks on the likes of Britain’s prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, as well as appearing virtually over the weekend at a campaign for far-right German party, Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD).
The Microsoft co-founder and the X/xAIi/SpaceX/Boring Company/Neuralink boss have long been something of adversaries, but in an interview released this week Gates accused Musk of “insane shit.”
Asked if Gates would enjoy influencing politics in the same way Musk seems to be, he responded: “Not at all. I thought the rules of the game were you picked a finite number of things to spout about that you cared for, focused on a few critical things, rather than telling people who they should vote for… For me it’s only ever about aid.
“I did think Brexit was a mistake, but I wasn’t tweeting every day.”
Speaking to British newspaper The Times, the billionaire tech founder said he was “ultra different” from the richest man on the planet.
Gates explained: “It’s really insane that he [Musk] can destabilize the political situations in countries.”
As such, Gates urged overseas governments to adopt safeguards to ensure “super-rich foreigners” can’t influence their elections: “It’s difficult to understand why someone who has a car factory in both China and in Germany, whose rocket business is ultra-dependent on relationships with sovereign nations and who is busy cutting $2 trillion in U.S. government expenses and running five companies, is obsessing about this grooming story in the U.K. I’m like, what?”
