'Satya Nadella, this is illegal': Why Elon Musk is calling out Microsoft

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk on Wednesday waded into a brewing controversy involving Microsoft’s gaming division, calling out alleged discriminatory hiring practices to the tech giant’s CEO, Satya Nadella.

The issue gained traction after podcaster Ian Miles Cheong accused Microsoft of sidelining White males in favour of unqualified hires from minority groups.

Reacting to a social media post on X that flagged a retweet from a popular art director, Cheong claimed, “Microsoft's gaming division is excluding whites from being hired to work on their video games. All of their new hires are unqualified queer and black people because the company's executives have an explicit mandate against ‘crusty old white dudes.’”

Musk responded by tagging Nadella and writing, “Um, @satyanadella, this is illegal ...”

The allegations didn’t stop there. Cheong also shared a post from rival social platform Bluesky, where Matthew Hansen, an art director at Microsoft’s Obsidian Entertainment, reportedly boasted about discriminatory hiring policies.

“Avowed art director at Obsidian and Microsoft brags about being racist and sexist against white guys. It's in the company's unspoken hiring policy, which he's partly in charge of,” Cheong alleged.

Responding to the allegations, Musk warned, “He is confessing to illegal behavior. Won't end well for him.”

The controversy can be traced back to March 2024, when Xbox’s global product marketing manager Kelly Lombardi sparked a debate with a post on X. “Raise your hand if you're not a white man and you buy video games,” Lombardi wrote, adding, “(No hate to white dudes, it's just another day in the gaming industry that minorities have to fight to prove they exist).”

While the post was later deleted, screenshots made the rounds online.

Musk himself had reacted to these posts at the time, saying, “It should not be acceptable for any company in the gaming industry to be racist & sexist against ‘white guys.’”

Microsoft, as well as Nadella, has yet to comment on Musk’s allegations.