Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman lauded Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in the latest episode of The Knowledge Project podcast. The Pershing Square Capital boss said he admires people like Elon Musk

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman praised Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk during the launch of The Knowledge Project's podcast, published on Tuesday. "I admire people like Elon Musk, I admire people who take on unbelievable challenges and succeed," the Pershing Square Capital boss told host Shane Parrish. "He's someone I have enormous respect for."

"The notion of building a car company to compete with the big car companies is something that on its own is fairly remarkable," Ackman continued.

He also noted that running an automobile company and a company that launches rockets into space at the same time impresses him and is remarkable. "If you do that a time when you're building a company to launch rockets into space I think it's even more remarkable," said Ackman.

Tesla Roadster loaded in SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket

He also spoke about short sellers and their influence. Ackman never invested in Tesla, but he is well aware that the behavior of short sellers goes beyond the pale. Pershing executive blamed them of going too far in their efforts to tank the electric-car maker's stock price. "I do think some of the short-sellers went beyond the role of identifying overvaluation in their attempts to actually harm a company." Ackman said. "That's where I think it goes beyond the pale."

In March, Ackman thanked Musk for his proposal to produce ventilators, because of the COVID-19 crisis, this was necessary.

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