The ongoing clash between Elon Musk and Reid Hoffman just got louder. The two billionaires, both early players in Silicon Valley, have sparred publicly over everything from artificial intelligence to corporate ethics.
Their latest fight centers around accusations that Hoffman is secretly backing protests against Tesla. In the middle of it all, Hoffman took a swipe at Musk’s popularity, saying, “The probability Tesla polls need to be rigged by bots to cover up the fact that people don’t like you? 100%.”
Musk Claims Hoffman Is Behind Anti-Tesla Protests
Over the weekend, Musk accused Hoffman of being one of several political donors backing anti-Tesla protests. He specifically pointed to Indivisible, a group organizing demonstrations at Tesla dealerships and factories.
Musk claimed Indivisible offers up to $200 in reimbursements to protestors and alleged there’s a “100%” chance Hoffman is funding the attacks.
“Reid will have many layers between himself and the organizations attacking me, but the probability is 100% that Reid is funding them. 100%,” Musk wrote on X.
Hoffman Fires Back on X
Hoffman fired back with a string of posts denying any involvement. Responding to accusations that he was avoiding Musk’s claim, he stated plainly, “I am denying Elon’s specific allegation.”
He later added, “100% not — at least so far. I’d be interested to learn if and which organizations might actually be doing something,” implying that even he wasn’t fully aware of all protest activity potentially linked to his broader political contributions.
Musk sarcastically told Hoffman to “Describe your favorite island vacation.” Hoffman hit back by sharing a graph showing Tesla’s recent stock slump and quipped, “I don’t know about islands but here’s your least favorite mountain,” referencing the stock’s sharp drop.
Amid the back-and-forth, Hoffman also signaled interest in broader political engagement. When a user encouraged him to support pro-housing YIMBY organizations, he teased future involvement by replying, “Having a YIMBY guest on the show soon…”
Feud Traces Back to OpenAI Fallout
Hoffman expanded on the feud during a recent interview on BBC Radio 4, saying the conflict is entirely one-sided.
“It’s more his beef with me for having made OpenAI successful with his departure,” Hoffman said.
“Because he left saying, you know, ‘You’re all a bunch of jackasses and you’ll fail,’ and I helped them succeed.”
He added that Musk struggles with collaboration. “That’s not how Elon operates, which anyone who has two eyes can see.”
As the posts and jabs continue flying across X, neither side seems ready to cool things down any time soon.