Elon Musk reignited his long-running feud with billionaire rival Jeff Bezos, suggesting the Amazon founder has a habit of copying his business moves.
Musk took a sarcastic jab at the Amazon founder in response to a tweet from controversial tech provocateur Kim Dotcom, who accused Bezos of imitating Musk’s forays into burgeoning sectors of the economy.
“Elon builds rockets, Jeff copies Elon,” Dotcom wrote. “Elon builds electric cars, Jeff copies. Elon builds brain-computer link, Jeff copies Elon … with [Microsoft founder Bill Gates] who copied [Amazon founder] Steve Jobs.”
“Maybe it’s a coincidence,” Musk replied, adding a shrugging emoji.
The sarcastic tweet marked the latest exchange between Musk and Bezos, who have developed a thorny relationship in public while clashing over their overlapping business interests. The two billionaires are leading an unprecedented private space race.
Musk’s SpaceX and Bezos’ Blue Origin are competing for federal contracts and to establish themselves as the world’s foremost space tourism firms. Separately, Amazon has launched Project Kuiper, an initiative to build a “constellation” of internet satellites to rival SpaceX’s Starlink system.
When Amazon first announced Project Kuiper in 2019, Musk tweeted that Bezos was a “copycat.”
Last year, Blue Origin staged an unsuccessful legal battle in which it had accused NASA of improperly awarding a lunar lander contract to SpaceX.
Dotcom also referenced Bezos’ participation, alongside Gates, in a $75 million fundraising round for brain computing firm Synchron. Musk is a co-founder of Neuralink and a major proponent of the potential of brain implants — even promising to place a chip inside his own head once the technology is ready for human use.
Musk serves as CEO of automaker Tesla, which has built a commanding lead in the electric vehicle market, while Bezos’ Amazon bought the self-driving taxi startup Zoox for $1.2 billion in 2020.
As of this fall, the pair also competes in the media sector — with Bezos owning the Washington Post and Musk owning and leading Twitter. On that front, Bezos was first, having scooped up the newspaper in 2013.
Their feud has occasionally ranged into more petty territory. In September, Musk publicly slammed Amazon’s expensive “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” series — declaring that the book series’ author J.R.R. Tolkien was “turning in his grave” over the e-commerce giant’s rendition of his work.
“Almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both,” Musk tweeted.
“Only Galadriel is brave, smart and nice,” Musk added, referring to the show’s main character, who is female.
Musk currently ranks as the world’s second-richest person, with an estimated fortune of $163.7 billion, according to Forbes. Bezos ranks fourth with an estimated net worth of $111.1 billion.
