Twitter CEO Elon Musk slammed four-time failed leftist presidential candidate Ralph Nader on the platform late this week over claims that Nader made about some of Musk’s businesses.
“Musk (@elonmusk) started Tesla with a huge U.S. government welfare grant,” Nader tweeted. “He has taken taxpayers to the cleaners for his factories and for Starlink. He is a gigantic corporate welfare king masquerading as a capitalist businessman. -R”
Musk fired back, “Ralph Nader, you are lying – shame on you! I personally provided almost all Tesla funding, based on my proceeds from PayPal, from Series A in 2004 until Series C in 2007.”
“In late 2008, I gave Tesla the last money I had. It was that or the company would have died,” Musk continued. “We closed that funding round at 6pm on Christmas Eve. If we had not closed that round, Tesla would have gone bankrupt 2 days after Christmas.”
“I gave my last money thinking Tesla would probably still die, not thinking that it would be lucrative,” he added. “The first meaningful government funding Tesla received was in Q2 2010 from a loan under the vehicle efficiency lending program. Tesla paid back that loan early with interest. Taxpayers actually made a profit.”
Ralph Nader, you are lying – shame on you! I personally provided almost all Tesla funding, based on my proceeds from PayPal, from Series A in 2004 until Series C in 2007.
In late 2008, I gave Tesla the last money I had. It was that or the company would have died. We closed that… https://t.co/fi2GdWER0d
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 24, 2023
Tesla was not founded by Musk, the electric car company was founded by entrepreneurs Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in 2003.
Musk serves as the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, as well as the leader of several smaller pet projects, such as Neuralink and The Boring Company.
“You know, my workload has recently increased quite a lot,” Musk said after purchasing Twitter. “I mean, I have too much work on my plate, that is for sure. No doubt about it.”
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When asked about business leaders who want to become the “Elon Musk of the East,” the world’s richest man commented that his lifestyle is not necessarily one to be desired. “I’d be careful what you wish for. I’m not sure how many people would actually like to be me,” he said. “They would like to be what they imagine being me, which is not the same thing as actually being me. The amount that I torture myself is next level, frankly.”
Four years ago, Musk said during an interview with Recode that he has worked 120 hours per week, although he finds working 80 hours per week “pretty sustainable.” According to a Harvard Business Review study, the average chief executive works 62.5 hours per week.
“There were times when, some weeks … I haven’t counted exactly, but I would just sort of sleep for a few hours, work, sleep for a few hours, work, seven days a week. Some of those days must have been 120 hours or something nutty,” he explained. “The pain level for hours increases exponentially. It’s like nonlinear above 80.”