Elon Musk is unhappy Tesla didn't get a name-check in Biden's State of the Union address

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Elon Musk is unhappy Tesla didn't get a name-check in Biden's State of the Union address
President Biden and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.Drew Angerer/Getty Images
  • Elon Musk is unhappy that Joe Biden didn't mention Tesla in his State of the Union address.
  • Biden praised Ford and General Motors for investing in electric vehicles – but not Tesla.
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Elon Musk is unhappy that Tesla didn't get a name-check in Joe Biden's first State of the Union address.

In his speech, the president praised carmakers Ford and General Motors for investing billions of dollars into building electric vehicles – but didn't say anything about Tesla, the world's leading manufacturer of EVs.

"Ford is investing $11 billion to build electric vehicles, creating 11,000 jobs across the country," Biden said. "GM is making the largest investment in its history: $7 billion to build electric vehicles, creating 4,000 jobs in Michigan."

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This irked Tesla CEO Musk.

"Nobody is watching the State of the Union," Musk told CNBC.

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Musk later replied to a post on Biden's official Twitter account, in which the president echoed his praise for GM and Ford.

Musk said: "Tesla has created over 50,000 US jobs building electric vehicles & is investing more than double GM + Ford combined [fyi to person controlling this twitter]."

It's not the first time Biden has left Tesla out of the EV conversation, nor is it the first time Musk has thrown shade at Biden.

In January, Musk described Biden as "a damp sock puppet in human form" after the president praised EV production by GM and Ford. Musk has previously complained to CNBC that Biden has "pointedly ignored Tesla."

Biden has, however, acknowledged that Tesla is America's "largest electric-vehicle manufacturer."

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