Elon Musk Says He’s “Not The Biggest Fan” Of Warren Buffett

Elon Musk took to the Joe Rogan Podcast for a second time in a recording that was released this week, shortly after the birth of his child. The array of topics covered included Elon’s new child, artificial intelligence, why Elon decided to sell all of his belongings (“possessions kind of weigh you down”), Neuralink, SpaceX, the Tesla Roadster, Covid-19 and dieting, among other things.

But when the topic turned to business, reopening the economy and billionaires, it then that Musk voiced his disapproval for Warren Buffett. And why wouldn’t Musk disapprove of Buffett? Aside from Buffett being a well-known name synonymous with value investing that refuses to own Tesla stock or seemingly make any profoundly positive comments any of Elon’s ventures, the two also have totally different management styles.

Buffett has a reputation of being thoughtful, patient and seeking to invest in entities that can generate cash and earnings consistently. Musk is brash, acts quickly out of emotion and has a history of burning billions of dollars in other people’s capital.

Perhaps that’s why Musk, while talking about capital allocation on the podcast, said of Buffett: 

“So when you take Warren Buffett for example, and to be totally frank I’m not his biggest fan, he does a lot of capital allocation. He reads a lot of annual reports of companies, all the accounts, and it’s pretty boring honestly. What he’s trying to figure out is ‘does Coke or Pepsi deserve more capital.”

Recall, Buffett was asked about Musk in late April and said: “Well, I think you’re trying to bait me a little bit. He’s done some remarkable things.” When asked if he would invest in Tesla, Buffett simply replied: “No.”

But now, who knows? Maybe the comment will inadvertently inspire Buffett to pick up and read a “boring” annual report of Tesla’s. We think he’d be simply amazed by what he finds. 

Musk’s comments, along with the rest of his underwhelming podcast with Joe Rogan, can be seen here: