The Drama Between Jeff Bezos & Elon Musk, Explained
Elon Musk might have an unlikely friendship with Kanye West and a pretty lucrative relationship with Donald Trump, but he can't stand Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and the feeling is mutual. There was discord between the two from the moment they met in 2004. During this meeting, they talked about all things space, but quickly realized they had very different opinions.
In his book, "The Space Barons," Christian Davenport details this first encounter, which started going wayward when Bezos didn't seem responsive to Musk's advice. "I actually did my best to give good advice, which he largely ignored," Musk is quoted saying in the book. Relations between him and the Amazon CEO have been strained ever since. The duo have been competing to win the space race while trying their utmost to best each other on Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, and us normal folks have gotten used to getting out the popcorn when they start engaging in their famous X (formerly Twitter) feuds.
In September 2022, Bezos took to X to celebrate the launch of Amazon's "Lord of the Rings" series, writing, "Go Middle-earth!" It didn't take Musk long to weigh in on the show as well, but he didn't share Bezos' sentiments. "Tolkien is turning in his grave," the Tesla CEO wrote. Adding insult to injury, he continued, "Almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both." For all Musk's criticism, the show did get renewed for a second season. Of course, this wasn't the first time Musk dissed Bezos. When Bezos proudly presented his used rocket on X back in 2015, calling it "the rarest of beasts," Musk clapped back, "Not quite 'rarest'. SpaceX Grasshopper rocket did 6 suborbital flights 3 years ago & is still around." Needless to say, the drama between these two is never-ending.
Their squabble has gotten pretty personal
When Elon Musk was named Time's Person of the Year in 2021, he couldn't resist rubbing it in Jeff Bezos' face. While being interviewed by the Financial Times, Musk briefly dedicated the conversation to his rival, saying he believed Bezos lacked the drive to truly become involved with his space company Blue Origin's engineering department, despite having "reasonably good engineering aptitude." He then went on to say that Bezos needed to have more fun. "[He] does take himself a bit too seriously. In some ways, I'm trying to goad him into spending more time at Blue Origin so they make more progress," Musk argued. "As a friend of mine says, he should spend more time at Blue Origin and less time in the hot tub." This from the man who bought Twitter and likely sat in his own hot tub while changing his profile name to "Chief Twit."
Earlier that year, Bezos suffered another devastating blow when Musk managed to dethrone him as the world's richest person. Luck was on the billionaire's side when Tesla's shares soared, and he wasn't exactly modest about the accomplishment, again using the opportunity to stick it to Bezos. "I'm sending a giant statue of the digit '2' to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal," Musk wrote in an emailed statement to Forbes.
It appears 2021 just wasn't Bezos' year, and Musk seemed intent on reveling in the man's misery. For instance, when Musk's Space X landed the NASA contract to send astronauts to the moon, Bezos was less than pleased that Blue Orbit had been left out in the cold and subsequently filed a complaint, claiming NASA's selection process wasn't fair. In a tweet responding to the news of the complaint Musk wrote, "Can't get it up (to orbit) lol."