There have been a few hints that the two entrepreneurs aren’t on good terms. In July, Bezos tweeted that he congratulated Musk for the SpaceX launch and Musk responded by sending him a tweet congratulating him on the success of his company. Both men are among the richest men in the world, with an estimated net worth of $195.7 billion and $201.9 billion, respectively.
In a 2004 photo, Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin company sued NASA over the Artemis moon lander project. The contract was worth $2.89 billion, but SpaceX won the contract because of its concept design, which had the advantage over all other companies. However, Jeff Bezos couldn’t accept the fact that his company had lost the contest, and Elon Musk responded by saying that Bezos “makes filing lawsuits a full-time job.” The two have a long-standing feud and are known to be extremely competitive and frequently bicker.
A recent article in Forbes outlines the rivalry between the two tech titans. While the two are business partners, their feud has been overshadowed by a host of controversies. Amazon’s lawsuit against SpaceX was a major blow to Bezos’s reputation and his plans to build a spaceship. Bezos’s company has sued Tesla for the Starlinks satellites mission, and the two have been fighting over it ever since. Bezos’ company has also attempted to lobby SpaceX employees to join Blue Origin.
A recent article by Ashlee Vance has revealed that Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have discussed their ongoing space race. The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk, revealed that the two men are good friends. He told Bezos that he had ‘an impressive engineering aptitude’ but didn’t spend nearly as much time on Blue Origin. Bezos’ response? ‘I’m not a scientist,’ said the billionaire.
As of July, Bezos was a late investor in Blue Origin. As a result, the two companies were forced to compete for the same contract. But Bezos’ rival Blue Origin is advancing more rapidly and Blue Origin is trailing behind. It has even tried to copy SpaceX projects. This has caused some controversy: the two companies have been accused of imitating each other’s patents.
While both companies are still pursuing their visions, they seem to have little in common. Both have made it clear that they are rivals in their respective industries. Bezos was named the Time magazine’s Person of the Year 2021, but that was not the only reason to name the two leaders as ‘friends’. The two executives have been sassy since then, and the feud has been a brewing for years.
In a recent court case, Bezos’ company, Blue Origin, had to settle a dispute with NASA over a $2.9 billion contract with SpaceX. Bezos’ firm argued that Bezos had moved the goal posts in favor of SpaceX. But the case has since been settled. But there is no evidence that the two companies are in competition with each other.
As it turns out, there is more than one connection between the two entrepreneurs. Bezos was an early backer of SpaceX. The founder of Google also funded the two companies’ ventures in the early 2000s. However, they never met in person. In fact, the only real interaction between the two was at the launch of the spacecraft. But even then, it was clear that they were “friends” as far as their business goals were concerned.
Both are famous for their different approaches to space. Bezos has sued Amazon for a similar claim, while Musk has tried to imitate Bezos’ efforts. Moreover, Blue Origin has reportedly stolen some of SpaceX’s ideas, including its Starlinks satellites mission. In other words, both men are stealing each other’s ideas and competing against each other.