Jeff Bezos Makes Strange Claim About Elon Musk, Wants a 'Friendship That Would Inspire'
Editor’s Note: Our readers responded strongly to this story when it originally ran; we’re reposting it here in case you missed it.
Apart from oodles of money and perhaps skin complexion, most people may struggle to find too many similarities between billionaire Amazon owner Jeff Bezos and billionaire X owner Elon Musk.
As just one glaring example, Musk has often described himself as a “free speech absolutist,” which seems to stand in stark contrast with the Bezos-owned Washington Post’s insistence on being beholden more to feelings than fact.
Despite that and some of Bezos’ other, more unscrupulous sentiments, the 59-year-old billionaire made a curious claim recently that he and Musk are actually two peas in a pod.
Appearing on a Dec. 13 episode of the “Lex Fridman Podcast,” the eponymous host and Bezos spoke at length about a number of topics over the course of a two-plus hour episode.
You can watch the whole thing for yourself below:
The conversation touched on a wide variety of subjects, including Bezos’ childhood, space exploration and Amazon, but the most interesting part of the entire conversation came when Bezos’ business and tech rival, Elon Musk, was brought up.
Fridman asked Bezos for his thoughts about Musk as a human being and a leader.
“Well, I don’t really know Elon very well,” Bezos began. “You know, 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. So I don’t really know. You know Elon way better than I do, Lex.”
After briefly collecting his thoughts, Bezos was able to compliment one aspect of Musk that he was familiar with.
“In terms of… judging by the results, he must be a very capable leader,” Bezos said. “There’s no way you can have Tesla and SpaceX without being a capable leader. It’s impossible.”
“Yeah, I just hope you guys hang out sometimes,” Fridman responded. “Shake hands, and sort of have a kind of friendship that would inspire just the entirety of humanity.”
Fridman was referring to the possibilities of SpaceX, Musk’s space technology program, working with Bezos’ Blue Origin, a rival aerospace company.
Bezos didn’t just agree with that — he said that the two shared commonality in “a lot of these endeavors.”
“Well, I agree with you and I think in a lot of these endeavors, we’re very like-minded,” Bezos said. “And so you know, I love that idea.”
The claim that the two share common goals is certainly disputable, but that’s neither here nor there because the two will almost assuredly never work together.
Bezos’ comments were peculiar enough that they were also called out by the New York Post, which also chronicled some of the past bad blood between the two billionaires, including a lawsuit over a NASA contract.
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