Elon Musk has advice for Jeff Bezos.
The two men are respectively the richest man in the world and the second richest man in the world.
At one point they both gave the impression that they did not agree on anything and especially that they were opposed to each other. But for the past few weeks, it seems that the two tech tycoons have been liking each other. At least the CEO of Tesla (TSLA) and the former CEO of Amazon (AMZN) decided to rebel against the politicians.
They have recently appeared as opponents of the Biden administration's economic policy and more particularly of the White House's responses to inflation, which is at its highest in 40 years.
Tesla and Amazon also have in common that they are anti-union strongholds. But President Biden is a union supporter.
Musk and Bezos also seem concerned about growing homelessness in big cities like San Francisco and Seattle. They believe that the private sector can provide part of the answer.
Is Bezos 'a Good Person?'
However, these rapprochements do not prevent the two men from being rivals. And Musk seems to need this rivalry, a healthy rivalry in the conquest of space with Bezos in particular. He has just scolded his billionaire peer by asking him to make an important choice. It all started with a poll that the serial entrepreneur organized on Twitter asking the social network users if they trusted billionaires less than politicians.
This was followed by questions from users including a very interesting question about Bezos.
"Do you think Bezos is (generally) a good person?" a user asked the mogul.
As often, the latter responded directly and with the outspokenness which is one of the important elements of the Musk brand.
"He’s fine, I guess," Musk said.
He then took the opportunity to send a flurry of criticism to Bezos.
"Does seem like he’s spending a lot of time in the hot tub these days," he added, referring probably referring to press articles in the tabloids chronicling the holidays of Bezos and his girl friend Lauren Sanchez in St. Barts.
"If he wants to get to orbit, less partying and more work would be advisable," Musk concluded.
Bezos has yet to respond as of this writing.
Musk and Bezos do share a common passion: space.
They both aspire to make the Moon and Mars habitable. But it is this shared will that crystallizes the rivalry between the two tycoons. They thus compete through SpaceX (Musk) and Blue Origin (Bezos), going blow for blow. But the advantage of this rivalry is positive for the conquest of space and Musk is aware of it. This is what must undoubtedly explain his sharp criticism of Bezos.
Last Month, Amazon announced agreements with Blue Origin, Arianespace and United Launch Alliance to provide launch services for Project Kuiper, Amazon's internet space initiative.
Blue Origin will help with Amazon's plan to build a network of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit in order to provide global internet service. Project Kuiper is similar to SpaceX's own Starlink program, which has a plan for tens of thousands of small satellites to provide broadband internet.
Starlink is well ahead of Project Kuiper currently, with more than 2,400 satellites already in orbit. Amazon's version has yet to launch any satellites.
But the future seems to smile at Blue Origin.
Last month, NASA picked six satellite companies -- including Musk's SpaceX and Project Kuiper --- to develop space communication services in Earth orbit.
In March, NASA said it planned a second commercial project to develop a moon landing system to carry astronauts to and from the lunar surface.
Musk vs. Gates
This is a unique opportunity for the firm, which had filed a protest last year with the U.S. Government Accountability Office after NASA awarded a $2.9 billion lunar landing system contract to SpaceX.
If Musk wants a healthy rivalry with Bezos, that's not the case with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. The Tesla boss still does not understand that Gates shorted the manufacturer of high-end electric vehicles.
Selling stock short is a bet that the stock's price will drop.
He thus returned to this subject which has been bothering him for a few weeks.
"Since Gates still has a multi-billion dollar short position against Tesla while claiming to help with global warming, I guess I have some trust issues with him too," the billionaire commented on a post by conservative author Brigette Gamble.
In her tweet, Gamble said she didn't trust Bill Gates.
Musk added that: Gates had an initial $500 million short Tesla position, "but then Tesla went up a lot, so now it’s $1.5B to $2B to close it out."
Tesla stock is down 28.1% since January at $759.63.
"I don't think that whether one's short or long Tesla is a statement about your seriousness about climate change," Gates said early May about attacks by Musk, who believes shorting Tesla is a blow to Gates' environmental credibility.
"I'm putting billions of dollars into climate-change innovation, I applaud Tesla's role in helping with climate change," Gates added.
