Elon Musk lost his temper this week and let off a stream of furious tweets—after an academic suggested that maybe billionaires don't earn their fortunes without outside help.
Robert Reich, a professor at the University of California, shared a video claiming Musk was able to become the world's richest man because his 'family owned an emerald mine'.
Reich said that 'self-made billionaires are a myth', and that "the origins of many billionaires aren't so humble", with many of the world's wealthiest people coming from 'upper-middle class upbringings'.
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Musk responded to the claims by saying "You both an idiot and a liar".
Musk has previously said he arrived in Canada by himself with $2500 in local currency, started his company "with no funding". In March last year, he also said: "My father & his extended family have been dependent on financial support from my brother & me for over 20 years."
This contrasts with claims made by Elon's father Errol Musk, who told Business Insider: "We had so much money at times we couldn't even close our safe" and that the family would walk around New York with emeralds in their pockets."
Maybe there's a bit more going on under the surface with Elon, as Reich's comments clearly touched a nerve. His car company has run into a bit of trouble this week as the US road safety watchdog ordered a recall of 1.1 million Tesla vehicles due to a defect with their smart windows that could crush people's fingers.
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Tesla is planning to release a downloadable software update to fix the issue, and says it has already addressed the problem in new cars.
Meanwhile, Musk is set to unveil the Optimus 'Tesla Bot' prototype next week which he claims could one day staff Tesla factories in their thousands and even work in our homes in future.
It's unclear whether Musk will actually come up with the goods, as last year's unveiling of the 'robot' was actually just a dancer in a costume.
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