Elon Musk has been accused of fuelling anti-semitism after comparing George Soros to the Jewish supervillain Magneto and claiming that the billionaire philanthropist “hates humanity”.

Mr Musk posted a series of late-night tweets attacking Mr Soros days after reports that his fund had sold its entire $16m (£12.8m) stake in Tesla during the first quarter of 2023.

The Tesla chief executive wrote on Twitter: “Soros reminds me of Magneto.”

Mr Musk, the world’s second richest man, added: “He wants to erode the very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity.”

Magneto is the nemesis of the X-Men in the Marvel comics who wants to conquer the world and believes that superpowered mutants should replace humans as the master race.

Magneto’s parents were killed in the Holocaust at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Mr Soros, 92, survived Nazi occupation of Hungary and moved to the UK in 1947.

Mr Musk's comments sparked a wave of criticism, including from the Jewish non-governmental organisation Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

ADL chief executive Jonathan Greenblatt wrote on Twitter: “Soros often is held up by the far-right, using antisemitic tropes, as the source of the world’s problems.”

He continued: “To see @ElonMusk, regardless of his intent, feed this segment - comparing him to a Jewish supervillain, claiming Soros “hates humanity" - is not just distressing, it's dangerous: it will embolden extremists who already contrive anti-Jewish conspiracies and have tried to attack Soros and Jewish communities as a result.”

Yair Rosenberg, a Jewish-American journalist at The Atlantic, described Mr Soros and Magneto as “literally ideological opposites”.

He said: "George Soros is an avowed universalist who grew up speaking Esperanto, an artificial universal language that was meant to unite all people under one tongue. Magneto is an avowed particularist who devotes all his energy to his own people, mutants.”

Documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission last week showed that Mr Soros’s family office, Soros Fund Management, offloaded more than 132,000 shares in Tesla between January and March.

The fund began buying shares in the electric vehicle maker for the first time at the start of 2022, and gradually expanded its stake throughout the year.

The sale is expected to have delivered significant returns for Mr Soros following the surge in Tesla’s share price earlier this year.

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