Tesla Loses $2 Billion After Elon Musk Calls Industry Analyst a ‘Boring Bonehead’
A Google co-founder also called him “speciesist” for his thoughts on AI.
Tesla founder and funny guy billionaire Elon Musk is on the verge of letting his inability to give a damn sabotage his money.
He’s had something of a bad week, in part because he just says what he thinks. If he thinks you’re an idiot, he’ll say so. Even if it’s actually at the wrong time and of no benefit to his company at all.
The Daily Mail reports that Musk did just that earlier this week while on a conference call about his company’s quarterly earnings.
It might have been bad for Musk, but what he said was equal parts snooty and hilarious.
'Boring bonehead questions are not cool': @elonmusk cuts off analysts on conference call, causing $TSLA shares to tumble https://t.co/WAtHJ8ZHzO Listen to the audio: pic.twitter.com/w5pnvNbdtZ
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 3, 2018
An analyst with the firm that handles Musk’s money apparently went to a no-no place and expressed doubts about the financial viability of the Tesla 3. Uh-oh. Musk then reportedly said, “Excuse me. Next. Boring, bonehead questions are not cool. Next?”
Ouch. Another analyst went down the same road and the situation didn’t improve. There was a pregnant pause, then Musk said, “These questions are so dry. They’re killing me.”
Just like that, reports the Mail, Tesla shares dropped off the shelf. Five percent, or about $2 billion, gone in the time it took for Musk to insult his money men.
So, that’s bad enough, but the Mail also reported that Musk and his friend Larry Page have an ongoing argument that could only arise between tech billionaires.
In an anecdote from MIT professor Max Tegmark’s just-published Life 3.0: Being Human In The Age of Artificial Intelligence, the author described Page and Musk’s debate.
Page doesn’t like Musk’s skeptical-to-paranoid view of a future full of autonomous and intelligent robots. To Page, that suspicion seems to set the stage for AI to only be available to the military. Musk reportedly kept poking at the Google mogul’s arguments and this prompted Page to call his pal “speciesist.” That is, Musk automatically thinks existence breaks down to inferior and superior life forms.
Okay.
There’s your week in Musk-land. Of course, we don’t feel sorry for him. In the end, he’s still sitting on an ocean of money. He can afford to lose a bit.
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