Bezos Wants To Be Musk So Bad: A Cosmic Rivalry Turned 69/420?

In the realm of tech moguls, few rivalries resonate as strongly as that of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Yet, it appears their competition has evolved into a game of comic mimicry, reflecting not just in their galactic goals but now even in their financial moves.

Mimicking Musk: Bezos, founder of Amazon.com Inc AMZN and Blue Origin, who stepped down as Amazon CEO in 2021, recently indulged in an act that strikingly resembles the humor often deployed by Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc TSLA and SpaceX.

Known for his playful, sometimes adolescent, approach to business decisions and public announcements, Musk frequently uses the numbers 420 and 69 in his transactions and tweets, perhaps to appeal to younger investors or merely to amuse himself.

Though, on May 26, literally reflecting Musk’s humor, Bezos purchased a single share of Amazon and reported the transaction at precisely 4:20 PM.

Adding to the jest, the former Amazon CEO donated just over 69,000 shares, amounting to $7.8 million, to charity on the same day, also reported at 4:20 PM. Musk is currently the second-richest person in the world, ahead of Bezos, the third-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $197.6 billion and $144 billion, respectively.

This playful act from Bezos casts a jovial light on the competition between the two billionaires.

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Their competition, often visible in their respective space ventures, now seems to be unfolding in a tongue-in-cheek display of mimicry, hinting that Bezos, despite his own tremendous success, might still be taking cues from Musk’s playbook.

Speaking of competition, here's where the rivalry started, according to a 2021 Business Insider report.

Roots Of The Rivalry: Bezos, who founded Amazon five years before Musk’s PayPal Holdings Inc PYPL was sold to eBay Inc EBAY, has long expressed his fascination with space. The interest culminated in his launch of Blue Origin in 2000.

Yet, Musk, who gained considerable wealth after selling PayPal, quickly became a formidable rival with the launch of SpaceX in 2002.

An unforgettable dinner in 2004 between the two CEOs cemented the competitive dynamic that has dominated their relationship since. Both at the helm of fledgling space companies at the time, they discussed their visions of reusable rockets. However, the meeting reportedly ended in disagreement, sparking the ongoing rivalry.

Their competition escalated in 2013 when SpaceX attempted to secure the exclusive use of a NASA launchpad, leading to a formal protest from Blue Origin. Then, in 2014, Bezos and Musk entered into a patent battle over landing rocket boosters on drone ships, a dispute that ended in SpaceX’s favor.

In recent years, the rivalry has spilled onto social media platforms, with the billionaires often trading barbs about their respective space ventures.

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