Elon Musk teases Michael Burry for shorting Tesla — and promises 'The Big Short' investor his Twitter problem will be fixed

• Elon Musk teased Michael Burry about his bet against Tesla stock on Saturday night.
• The Tesla CEO promised "The Big Short" investor his verified status on Twitter would be reinstated.

Michael Burry booted up Twitter on Saturday night to complain he was no longer a verified user of the social-media platform. Elon Musk promised the investor his blue checkmark would be reinstated, and couldn't resist needling him for betting against Tesla.

"Interesting- my last tweet with a blue check mark was this one," the fund manager of "The Big Short" fame wrote. He was referring to a now-deleted tweet in which he said, perhaps sarcastically, that Musk "buying enough shares to control Twitter would be good for America."

"You will get it back, even though you shorted Tesla, you bastard," Musk replied, ending his tweet with a crying-with-laughter emoji.

—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 10, 2022

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO revealed this week that he spent about $3 billion to build a 9.2% stake in Twitter, making him the company's largest shareholder. Musk also agreed to join Twitter's board, and limit the size of his stake to 14.9% during his tenure as a director.

Burry, who runs Scion Asset Management, is best known for his lucrative bet against the mid-2000s housing bubble, and for buying GameStop stock months before it skyrocketed in January 2021.

The investor has also ridiculed Tesla's heady valuation, and wagered its stock would nosedive. Moreover, he accused Musk of selling Tesla shares last year not to pay more taxes, but to capitalize on the electric-vehicle company's overheated stock price and pay off personal debts.

"Burry is a broken clock," Musk responded to the claims, referring to Burry's repeated warnings about market crashes in recent years.

Scion held put options against Tesla stock in the first six months of 2021, but sold those bearish positions and most of its US stocks in the third quarter of last year.