Tech billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are bickering again—but the stakes are arguably much higher now than they were before the election. On Wednesday, Musk accused Bezos, his long-time rival, of encouraging acquaintances to sell off SpaceX and Tesla stock. Musk is the CEO and largest shareholder of both companies, which stand to benefit greatly from Donald Trump’s administration.
“Nope. 100% not true,” Bezos fired back on X.
“Well, then, I stand corrected 😂,” Musk responded.
Such spats are not unusual for Musk and Bezos, who have tangled for nearly 20 years. Much of their rivalry stems from the competing interests of SpaceX and Blue Origin, their rocket manufacturing and exploration ventures. The two firms regularly vie for government contracts and have been involved in litigation over NASA’s procurement practices; Musk, in particular, has been quick to publicly mock Bezos whenever Blue Origin falls behind SpaceX. “He should spend more time at Blue Origin and less time in the hot tub," Musk joked to The Financial Times in 2021.
Now Musk’s barbs carry more weight. A close ally of the president-elect, Musk appears to have Trump’s ear and has been tapped to lead a new government efficiency board alongside Vivek Ramaswamy that could recommend sweeping changes in federal policy. Bezos, meanwhile, has also tangled with Trump in the past, both as the founder of Amazon and the owner of The Washington Post. The Post’s controversial decision not to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in October came the same day that Blue Origin executives met with then-candidate Trump in Austin. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who succeeded Bezos in 2021, has also tried to cozy up to Trump in recent months; during one August phone call, the Post reported, Trump told Jassy that Amazon should donate to his re-election campaign because it would be in the company’s best interests should he win. (The Post noted that “Jassy did not agree to make the contribution.”)
All together, Bezos’s companies do billions of dollars of business with the federal government, whether through Blue Origin or Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud-computing division. Amazon also has a special agreement with the US Postal Service to deliver packages, which Trump attacked during his first administration. The threat of further scrutiny has, it appears, encouraged Bezos to make nice with Trump and Musk. Apart from his recent message to his long-time rival, Bezos has also made a rare appearance on X to praise Trump’s “grace and courage” during a July assassination attempt and to congratulate him on the election results.
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