Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Yichuan Cao/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Elon Musk is fighting short-sellers again.

This time, he’s reignited a feud with Greenlight Capital CEO David Einhorn, a well-known Tesla short and a regular critic of the company Musk.

After Einhorn reportedly criticized Tesla in a scathing analyst’s note, Musk derided Greenlight’s financial performance and addressed the hedge fund CEO as „Mr. Unicorn.“ He also offered to meet with Einhorn.



Musk has sparred with Einhorn before, and last year sent him a bunch of short shorts to make fun of his position as a short seller.

Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Elon Musk is fighting with short sellers again.

This time, he has reignited a feud with David Einhorn, the billionaire CEO of Greenlight Capital and a long-time Tesla skeptic. That’s after Einhorn sent a skeptical letter about Musk and Tesla to Greenlight’s investors this week.

According to the Insider Monkey blog, Einhorn sent a letter to investors in the wake of Tesla’s surprisingly good Q3 earnings, describing the company as one of the „material losers“ of the third quarter.

In the letter, Einhorn highlighted Musk’s involvement in a court case which alleges he used Tesla and SpaceX to bail out his cousin’s solar power company SolarCity by buying it for and inflated value of $2.6 billion.

Einhorn described this litigation as showing that Musk, „knowingly orchestrated a significant fraud.“ The letter also accuses Tesla of failing to adequately warn customers when its solar panels started catching fire, or after a series of car battery fires in Tesla vehicles.

Musk on Friday posted his response to Einhorn’s note on Twitter.

He addressed the response to „Mr. Unicorn“ (Einhorn is German for unicorn), and signed it „Treelon Musk,“ presumably a reference to Musk’s recent donation of $1 million to a tree-planting charity. Musk said the hedge fund manager had made „numerous false allegations against Tesla,“ although he did not clarify which parts of Einhorn’s letter he took issue with. Tesla did not immediately comment when contacted by Business Insider.

Here is Musk’s note in full:

Elon Musk Einhorn note Elon Musk/Twitter

Greenlight experienced its worst year ever in 2018, declining by 34%, according to Bloomberg.

The first half of 2019 saw the company bounce back, with its overall returns lifting to 18% according to an investor update seen by Bloomberg. Greenlight was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Business Insider.

This is not the first time Musk has tangled with Einhorn, nor is it the first time he has offered to send him short shorts. In August 2018 Musk followed through on a similar offer, as documented by Einhorn.

Einhorn posted a picture of the pile of shorts and wrote: „I want to thank @elonmusk for the shorts. He is a man of this word! They did come with some manufacturing defects.“

Tweet Embed:

//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1027906040283713537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

I want to thank @elonmusk for the shorts. He is a man of his word! They did come with some manufacturing defects. #tesla pic.twitter.com/qsYfO8cbkp

Musk has shown a particular disdain for short sellers in the past for betting against Tesla’s success, saying what they do „should be illegal.“

Do you work at Tesla? Contact this reporter via email at [email protected] or [email protected]. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.