Elon Musk didn't used to care about short sellers — here's why he does now (TSLA)

pulse

August 17, 2018 5:25 PM

Tesla CEO Elon Musk actually has a relatively brief history of counter-attacking short sellers. For much of Tesla's 15-year history, Musk has considered Wall Street something of a necessary, but tolerable, evil. That's changed in the past 12 months.

For much of Tesla's 15-year history, Musk has considered Wall Street something of a necessary, but tolerable, evil.
That's changed in the past 12 months as

Tesla has existed for 15 years and has been a public company since 2010. That could all change if CEO Elon Musk is able to take the carmaker private, but in the meantime, the pitched battle between Musk and Wall Street short sellers has only intensified.

In a revealing interview with the New York Times published Thursday, Musk offered his current view of the shorts, who ranks include big-name find managers such as David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital and Jim Chanos of

He also appears to have an innate understanding of what the shorts are all about. Just as he's on a mission to make Tesla a large and thriving company, the shorts are on a mission to make as much money as possible for their investors.

Chanos's fund manages $2 billion, and he's showing no signs of capitulating, even though some of his criticisms of Tesla look pretty thin under scrutiny. Einhorn's Greenlight lost 18% in the first half of 2018, thanks to his $5.5-billion fund's Tesla short. Musk tweeted that he'd send the guy a box of short shorts for comfort.

Musk knows what hes up against

Funny, but Musk knows that these investors are extremely well capitalized, experienced, and ruthless. In an email to Tesla employees announcing his go-private goals, Musk wrote that "

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