Bill Gates criticised fellow billionaire Elon Musk’s desire to transport people to Mars and questioned whether Musk’s current ambitions would allow him to be a worthy philanthropist.
In a BBC interview that will air on Friday night, the co-founder of Microsoft was asked whether he believed Musk would be considered a philanthropist.
Gates said that while he does not currently consider Musk to be one, this may change in the future.
According to Gates, “Things like Tesla are having a positive impact, even without being a form of philanthropy…”
He continued, “I think some day he will join the rank of philanthropists using his ingenuity.”
He cast doubt on the billionaire’s plan to colonise Mars.
Musk’s space exploration company, SpaceX, is spending heavily on rockets and spaceships in the hopes of one day sending people to the planet Mars.
Gates responded, “Not in my view,” when asked by BBC journalist Amol Rajan if visiting Mars would be a wise use of funds.
He continued by saying that developing vaccines was a better use of money than sending people to Mars.
Over the years, Gates and Musk have regularly clashed.
In April, Musk claimed he questioned Gates about his short-selling of Tesla stock, betting on the stock’s decline in value.
Gates responded to a question from CNBC last year about the remarks and whether he was short Tesla by saying, “I don’t talk about my investments, but I believe he should be very proud of what he’s done.”
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