Known in the past as the "Pharma Bro" for his ties to the pharmaceutical industry, Martin Shkreli is known these days for shorting individual stocks or entire sectors, like a recent bet against public quantum computing companies.
In a potential rare sign of support, Shkreli is speaking out against people who are shorting Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) stock.
What Happened: Shkreli has been shorting popular quantum computing stocks and meme stock Opendoor Technologies, but you likely won't find him shorting Tesla shares anytime soon.
Shkreli recently took to social media to defend Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk.
"I don't understand ‘$TSLAQ.' Guy is the richest man in the world. He won. It's over. He's more successful with his 2nd, 3rd and 4th largest companies than you will ever be," Shkreli said in a post on X.
Benzinga reached out to Mr. Shkreli and did not hear back.
TSLAQ is often used to describe Tesla short sellers and skeptics.
In another post, Shkreli said Tesla "is a great company with great management."
Shkreli said he is shorting stocks that are "frauds and pipe dreams."
In another post, Shkreli responded to a user critical of Tesla and Musk.
"Do you admit the guy is a great entrepreneur at 2T market cap? 5T? 10T?"
The investor also asked another user, "Where is your trillion dollar company?" and accused the user of having "Tesla derangement syndrome."
Why It's Important: Followers of Shkreli may be surprised to see the investor's criticism of short sellers given his current attention to calling out the valuation of quantum computing stocks like IonQ Inc (NYSE:IONQ), Rigetti Computing Inc (NASDAQ:RGTI) and D-Wave Quantum Inc (NYSE:QBTS).
Tesla short sellers were recently targeted by Musk himself, who in August warned that the companies and investors betting against the EV giant will suffer.
“If they don’t exit their short position before Tesla reaches autonomy at scale, they will be obliterated,” Musk said.
The tweet comes as Tesla is focused heavily on reaching autonomy and has robotaxis operating in multiple cities.
Short sellers are nothing new for Tesla and neither is Musk calling out anyone betting against his company. In fact, Musk once used the same “obliterated” wording in response to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates shorting Tesla stock.
Leaked texts between Gates and Musk in 2022 revealed that Gates was short Tesla stock. Musk refused to discuss philanthropic efforts with the billionaire as a result.
"Sorry, But I cannot take your philanthropy on climate change seriously when you have a massive, short position against Tesla, the company doing the most to solve climate change."
While it is unknown if Gates is still short Tesla stock today, Musk has poked fun at the billionaire over the years.
Musk also poked fun at hedge funds and investors shorting the stock by issuing “short shorts” merchandise previously.
According to Benzinga Pro data, 2.96% of the Tesla stock float is short. While this represents a small percentage, the data shows that 86.21 million Tesla shares are short, which is valued at over $37 billion.
TSLA Price Action: Tesla stock was down 0.7% to $435.54 on Thursday versus a 52-week trading range of $212.11 to $488.56. Tesla shares are up 14.8% year-to-date in 2025.
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