Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk —both tech entrepreneurs, billionaires and quasi-celebrities — have been circling each other for years.
Back in 2019, Bezos, who at the time was worth around $114 million, according to Forbes, was the richest man alive. He topped the Forbes 400 list beating out Bill Gates and Warren Buffett by a healthy margin.
Elon Musk, with shares of Tesla (TSLA) -) trading at around the $20 range, was worth only $22.3 billion at the time, according to Forbes.
Related: Jeff Bezos goes to Elon Musk for a helping hand
In the years since, Tesla's share price — and Musk's net worth — have skyrocketed. He is now the richest man alive, with a net worth of roughly $222 billion, beating out Bezos who, with a net worth of $173 billion, is the third-richest man alive.
Beyond the leap-frogging journey of their net worth, both men have a clear interest in getting to space. Bezos started Blue Origin in 2000 to achieve that goal. And Musk started SpaceX to achieve the same goal in 2002.
For SpaceX, launches have become a bit routine. The company has successfully launched 290 rockets to date.
The same feat has proven to be something of a challenge for Blue Origin, which is targeting the highly-anticipated launch of its New Glenn rocket next year.
Still, there seems to be little antagonism between the two apparent competitors.
Related: Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is purposefully lagging behind Elon Musk's SpaceX
Bezos, Musk and competition in space
"If there was a button I could press that would delete Blue Origin, I wouldn’t press it," Musk said at the annual DealBook Summit earlier in the month.
"I actually agree with a lot of Jeff’s motivations," he added. "I think it’s good that he’s spending money on making rockets, too. I’d suggest perhaps he spend more time on it, but it’s up to him."
Bezos, appearing Thursday on Lex Fridman's podcast, agreed with Musk's pro-competition sentiment.
"Space is big and there's room for a bunch of winners. It's going to happen at all scale levels," he said. "SpaceX is going to be successful for sure. I want Blue Origin to be successful and I hope there are another five companies right behind us."
He likened the coming commercialization of space to the Internet age, marked by numerous successful, profitable Internet-based companies with widely varied market caps.
"That's what we want to see in space, that kind of dynamism," Bezos said.
Speaking about Musk personally, Bezos said he doesn't know the Tesla (TSLA) -) CEO very well, but "judging by the results, he must be a very capable leader."
"There's no way you could have Tesla and SpaceX without being a capable leader. It's impossible," he said.
Bezos added that, in a lot of their endeavors, the two billionaires are "very like-minded."
"I'm not saying we're identical, but we're very like-minded," he said.
Contact Ian with tips via email, ian.krietzberg@thearenagroup.net, or Signal 732-804-1223.
Related: One of Tesla Chief Elon Musk's other ventures is now worth $180 billion
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