Elon Musk- Jeff Bezos: Who wins the battle of the billionaire?

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are two billionaires with deep pockets flourishing businesses, and sky-high ambitions. 

While Bezos is the king of e-commerce and Musk- the titan of tech, the pair have bridged paths more times. Bezos and Musk, rising up through two completely different industries, their interests did eventually clash, triggering why we like to consider the New Era space race. 

You see Jeff Bezos is the CEO and founder of Blue Origin, an inventive aerospace manufacturer that’s seeking to make space exploration cheaper, on the other hand, Elon Musk is the CEO and founder of SpaceX, an inventive aerospace manufacturer that’s also striving to make space exploration cheaper.

I am sure you can see why this is causing some tension but it hasn’t always been Musk in the red corner, Bezos in the blue; in fact, they even shared dinner together in 2004 to discuss their pioneering space endeavors.

When both space companies were in their beginning the pair didn’t have all that much to measure up against.

Bezos started Blue Origin in 2000 and Musk got SpaceX off the floor in 2002. However, it wasn’t until many years later either would actually initiate something resembling a rocket.  

The two have much in general. Each of these forecasters has leveraged modern technology to makeover an industry. Both have a profound interest in space missions. But the two don’t always see eye-to-eye. With Bezos making gains in the automotive industry, investing in electric and autonomous vehicle firms, in particular, Musk doesn’t appear to be agreed.

So what’s going on? Well, Amazon purchased Zoox, a self-driving car company. Amazon has also invested in an autonomous car firm named Aurora innovation. Bezos’ company also decided to invest in electric vehicle maker Rivian. Though Musk isn’t exactly flattered by this imitation – Elon recently tweeted that Bezos is a “copycat” and that it’s time to break up Amazon. 

Is Amazon really making moves into Tesla’s turf?

Let’s be clear. There is definitely a conflict between Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Their rivalry in the spaceflight area is well known by some Twitter banter. 

Let’s take a step back and look at these two business individualists and their respective companies. 

Bezos founded a scrappy online retailer from his garage in 1944 and turned it into the dominant e-commerce behemoth. Pushing ahead, with the rise of e-commerce, Amazon has clearly changed the path, the world shops. 

On the other hand, Tesla was founded in 2003, and Musk has thrived to become the second most efficient automaker in the market value. Tesla has achieved in showing us the path to its goal of electrifying the world’s transportation system, but much of the auto industry is carrying a wait-and-see approach. 

Does this leave space for Amazon to enter the EV/ AV game? The Seattle-founded e-commerce giant certainly has some pocket change lying around. Amazon has about $43.7 billion cash in hand while Tesla’s cash position stands at around $6.3 billion. 

How about Musk vs. Bezos? Who’s got the bigger capital? According to an article in Bloomberg from this month, Musk is now worth a decent $174 billion, but Bezos boasts of being the richest man in history, with an approximate net worth of over $181 billion.

Consented, Jeff Bezos (and Amazon) have some deep pockets. No doubt about it. But should Musk flee scared? Well, if the Blue Origin vs. SpaceX clash is any indication, I don’t think Elon Musk is about to dwindle from this challenge. After all, he’s had to compete with plenty of Alligator-like opponents before.