Bill Gates bought an electric car. But while hes given Tesla credit for pushing other carmakers to go electric, it does seem notable that he didnt buy from the company that pushed the innovation. He bought a Porsche Taycan.

Someone alerted Elon Musk to this development, of course. And that got us a bitchy tweet from Musk: My conversations with Gates have been underwhelming tbh. Its true that Musk likes beef; after all, hes made cracks about Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg and Amazons Jeff Bezos. (Actually, it seems like Musk and Bezos have a lively rivalry going.)

But the Gates fight strikes me as different precisely because Musks dismissal of him is so broad. Both Musk and Gates are admirers of Nick Bostrom, the Swedish philosopher who has warned in his 2014 book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies that machine intelligence could surpass human intelligence. Both men have appeared on The Big Bang Theory. Perhaps significantly, though, Musk is frequently compared not to Gates, but to Apples late CEO, Steve Jobs.

The Taycan is also something of a sore spot for Musk, even though it has a smaller range than Teslas comparable vehicles. But the Taycan Turbo set the four door electric sports car lap record at Germanys Nrburgring. (Though Musk has suggested on Twitter that the use of Turbo by Porsche is a misnomer.) And, apparently in response, Musk announced Tesla would run a Model S around the track. In November, Musk also picked a fight with Top Gear, a TV show that depicted a Taycan beating a Model S in a race.

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Bill Gates bought a Porsche, and then Elon Musk talked trash about him - The Verge