
Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday lashed out at George Soros on Twitter, which coincided with news emerging of the billionaire investor dumping his entire stake in the US-based electric vehicle major.
Soros Fund Management, the family office of billionaire George Soros, purchased 42,000 shares of Tesla in 2022 and later increased the holdings to 1,32,000 shares. Tesla shares jumped 68% in the first quarter, thanks to a broad rally in the technology sector amid expectations of cooling inflation leading to pause in interest rate hikes. By offloading that position in the January quarter, the fund likely enjoyed significant gains from the surge in the EV maker’s stock price this year.
Soon after Soros' position on Tesla was made public, Musk tweeted with a comparison between Soros and Magneto, a comic-book character in X-Men, who could generate and control magnetic fields. "Soros reminds me of Magneto," tweeted Musk.
There was no explanation by Musk for the tweet. Elon Musk is known for his rhetorical replies on the social media platform that he owns. The backstory of Magneto that he's a Holocaust survivor, like 92-year-old Soros. Though Magneto is a villain against the X-Men group, in modern times, he is considered more of an anti-hero.
Brian Krassenstein, an independent investigative journalist, on Twitter wrote: “Fun fact: Magneto's experiences during the Holocaust as a survivor shaped his perspective as well as his depth and empathy. Soros, also a Holocaust survivor, gets attacked nonstop for his good intentions which some Americans think are bad merely because they disagree with this political affiliations.”
Musk went ahead and replied, “You assume they are good intentions. They are not. He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.”
Musk didn’t respond to Krassensteins’s comment on what basis he was making this claim.
However, as per the critics, George Soros is known for profiting from financial and social crisis he creates by funding left wing organisations around the world to push his ideological agendas. His ‘Open Society Foundation’ advocacy network has given $32-billion funds organisations around the world, according to its website. The network said it gives “thousands of grants every year towards building inclusive and vibrant democracies”.
While he was cutting his position in Tesla, Soros’s fund added new stakes in transportation provider Norfolk Southern Corp.
Norfolk is the same company that is facing lawsuits from the state of Ohio and the US Justice Department over the February 3 train derailment of 38 railcars, including 11 carrying hazardous materials, which resulted in release of hydrogen chloride and phosgene into the air/water and evacuation of residents within a 1-mile radius of the incident.
Although some people were not as sympathetic to Elon’s tweet, Kyle Griffin, executive producer at MSNBC, tweeted: “The likely reason behind Elon Musk’s antisemitic words tonight : George Soros’ fund dumped its entire Tesla stake in the first quarter of 2023”
Earlier this year, Soros also predicted that the Adani-Hindenburg turmoil will “significantly weaken Modi’s stranglehold on India’s federal government” and “open the door to push for much needed institutional reforms.”
“I may be naive, but I expect a democratic revival in India,” Soros said in February 2023.
Soros is also known as ‘The Man who broke the Bank of England’ after he shorted $10 billion worth of British pound sterling, which made him a profit of $1 billion, during the 1992 Black Wednesday UK currency crisis.
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