Billionaire Elon Musk recently criticized venture capitalist Vinod Khosla for restricting public access to a beach near his home. This dispute surfaced after Khosla previously criticized Musk for his views on climate change and CO2 levels, calling Musk’s ideas “dumb.”
Elon Musk took to social media, posting, “Wow, so crazy that @vkhosla put this sign on a public beach,” along with a photo of a sign that read, “No plebs allowed.” In a subsequent comment, Musk accused Khosla of planning to send large numbers of unvetted migrants to small towns across America while refusing to allow the public access to his beachfront.
Wow, so crazy that @vkhosla put this sign on a public beach pic.twitter.com/ln46n07kvw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 21, 2024
Reports reveal that Khosla purchased a beachfront property for $32.5 million in 2008 and shortly after installed a gate to block public access to the beach via a road that leads down to the cove. Khosla’s legal team claims the gate is within his rights as the landowner, though many disagree. After a lengthy legal battle, the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018, which declined to hear Khosla’s appeal, thereby upholding a lower court’s ruling that the public should have access.
The ruling was a win for the Surfrider Foundation, a California-based organization dedicated to protecting beaches and oceans. Khosla also faces resistance from California’s State Lands Commission over his efforts to restrict beach access.