Jeff Bezos Shares What He Actually Thinks About Elon Musk And His Leadership

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and now a space colonization evangelist whose dreams ride atop the Bue Origin rockets, is a man of few words. It's rare to see him sitting for interviews and even rarer to watch him dish dirt on fellow world-leading billionaires, such as Elon Musk. However, in a recent episode of the Lex Fridman Podcast, Bezos comfortably skirted around years of slight jabs and heated behind-the-scenes rivalry between the two while heaping praise on the Tesla and SpaceX chief's leadership capability. 

Jeff Bezos envisions millions of space colonies, sustained by sunshine and vast resources available on the moon, asteroids and other parts of the solar system. Elon Musk envisions life on Mars. They need to talk about the long-range problems of humanity. pic.twitter.com/toyViUsLag

— Velina Tchakarova (@vtchakarova) December 14, 2023

"Well, I don't really know Elon very well. I know his public persona, but I also know you can't know anyone by their public persona. It's impossible. I mean, you may think you do, but I guarantee you don't," Bezos said. He isn't wrong in his observation — billionaires often portray an entirely different image to their audience, online or otherwise. Some get uber-rich by exploiting their talent, charisma, and leadership virtues. However, behind the scenes, a few have even lied about spearheading revolutionary blood tests, defrauding investors on electric truck innovations, or overseeing staged ads about advanced driving systems.

Still, billion-dollar rivalries aside, Bezos gave credit where it's due, even though some might argue that the science and tech minds at Tesla and SpaceX deserve more credit for their magnificent success. "In terms of judging by the results, he must be a very capable leader. There's no way you could have Tesla and SpaceX without being a capable leader. It's impossible," Bezos pointed out. Of course, over the years, things haven't been as courteous, even if Bezos hasn't been as brash and outspoken as Musk.

Not long after Musk's takeover of X, formerly known as Twitter, Bezos shared an article on X and asked whether the "town square" could feel pressure from China due to Musk's deep business ties in the Asian superpower. However, Bezos himself posted a composed denial defending Musk soon after. "My own answer to this question is probably not. The more likely outcome in this regard is complexity in China for Tesla, rather than censorship at Twitter," Bezos later added.

Late in 2021, when Musk again leapfrogged Bezos as the world's richest man, he joked about sending him a consolation medal. "I'm sending a giant statue of the digit '2' to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal," Musk wrote in an email to Forbes. But when it comes down to business, the jibes are brutal and the digs are more straightforward.

1/ In 2004, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos met for a meal to discuss space.

It was one of their few in-person interactions.

The conversation they had perfectly captures the different approaches they've taken to space exploration.

Here's the story 🧵 pic.twitter.com/g8hAsEj3d4

— Trung Phan (@TrungTPhan) March 1, 2021

Amazon's Prime Video division reportedly spent around a billion dollars on its ambitious streaming show "The Lod of the Rings: The Rings of Power." Musk was not too happy with the final result and made sure to vent it out publicly. "Tolkien is turning in his grave. Almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both. Only Galadriel is brave, smart and nice," Elon wrote on Twitter, per Variety.

Still, Bezos has had his moments, too, especially when it comes to Musk's fascination with colonizing Mars. "My friends who want to move to Mars? I say, 'Do me a favor, go live on the top of Mount Everest for a year first, and see if you like it — because it's a garden paradise compared to Mars," Bezos reportedly said at a private lecture, as reported by Business Insider.

Musk's SpaceX and Starlink ventures are currently at the top of the summit in their respective segments, but Bezos also wants a piece of the space commercialization pie with Blue Origin and Project Kuiper. Over the past few years, their respective companies have locked horns over securing lucrative government contracts, which has resulted in some ugly spats. "If lobbying & lawyers could get u to orbit, Bezos would be on Pluto rn," Musk tweeted regarding Amazon's regulatory pushback attempts against Starlink.

Amazon hasn't tasted nearly as much success with its ambitious New Glenn two-stage heavy-lift launch vehicle. Musk apparently has some course correction advice for that, as well. "If Blue Origin spent as much time on *actual* rocket science as they do protesting NASA's HLS decision, New Glenn would have reached orbit, New Armstrong would be operational and Jeff's O'Neill colony in space idea would be real," Musk shared on X. "Turns out Besos retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX," he wrote in another post.

Responding to an article about Blue Origin filing a complaint against NASA over a lander contract awarded to SpaceX, Musk got a bit too cheeky. "Can't get it up (to orbit) lol" he posted on X. Back then, Musk was throwing shade at Blue Origin's failure to conduct a successful orbital spaceflight test. In an interview with the Financial Times, Musk remarked that Bezos should "spend more time at Blue Origin and less time in the hot tub," further indicating that despite his acumen, Bezos appears inclined to use his "mental energy getting into the details of engineering." In Musk's opinion, his space race rival takes himself "a bit too seriously."

Musk has also used emojis to pinch Bezos from time to time. In response to an article about Amazon's plans to launch its satellite constellation, Musk threw a copycat jibe on X using a cat emoji. When Bezos was gloating about proving his early critics wrong, Musk once again made sure to remind him that he was still at the second spot with a silver medal emoji. In 2015, as Bezos was reveling in the success of Blue Origin landing a used rocket after taking it to the edge of space, Musk congratulated the team but soon put Bezos in his place by reminding him that SpaceX did it first.

Maybe it's a coincidence 🤷‍♂️

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022

Apparently, the rivalry began about two decades ago. "I actually did my best to give good advice, which he largely ignored," Musk reportedly said of his first encounter with Bezos at a dinner meeting, as reported by Business Insider. The recent Musk biography by Walter Isaacson also offered some interesting nuggets of information on the Musk-Bezos tussle, once again shared by Business Insider. It seems Musk was not too happy with Bezos for not inviting him to tour the Blue Origin facilities, despite having shown Bezos around the SpaceX premises in 2004.

Of course, Musk has also rarely shied away from sharing his feelings. In a BBC interaction, while discussing SpaceX rivals, Musk referred to Bezos' mention as "Jeff who?" More recently, he took a swipe at Bezos' recent hulking physical transformation. "Damn, Jeff is *way* more buff these days!" Musk wrote on X, responding to an old video of the former Amazon CEO from 2002. Let's hope Musk stops stealing memes to throw shade at Bezos, though.