Elon: ‘2’ bad, Jeff
Newly crowned richest man teases billionaire rival
Tesla CEO Elon Musk — who’s now worth more than $210 billion, surpassing Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person — gibed the Amazon founder by saying he will send him some special gifts.
“I’m sending a giant statue of the digit ‘2’ to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal,” Musk wrote in an e-mail to Forbes.
Musk and Bezos have been trading places as the world’s wealthiest person for months as their on-paper billions change rapidly in conjunction with the stock prices of their companies.
Musk’s current fortune as of Tuesday’s end-of-day stock prices stood at $213 billion, topping Bezos’ $197 billion, according to Bloomberg’s billionaires index.
Separately, Musk slammed Bezos on Tuesday over multiple legal fights between the two billionaires’ space ventures. “You cannot sue your way to the moon, no matter how good your lawyers are,” Musk said.
Musk made the comments in an interview with the journalist Kara Swisher, who had asked him about a lawsuit Bezos’ Blue Origin filed in August against NASA over the agency’s decision to give a $2.9 billion moon lander contract to Musk’s SpaceX.
Amazon also filed a complaint against SpaceX with the Federal Communications Commission the same month, urging it to reject SpaceX’s plan to launch more satellites as part of its satellite Internet business.
Swisher asked Musk if he had personally spoken to Bezos about the issue.
“Not verbally, just . . . subtweets,” Musk replied.
It’s not the first time Musk has taunted Bezos over his legal maneuvers.
In August, Musk jabbed at Bezos over his decision to step down as Amazon chief executive.
“Turns out Besos [sic] retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX …” Musk wrote on Twitter — misspelling Bezos’ name, instead writing the Spanish word for “kisses.”
A Blue Origin spokesperson, asked by The Post for a reply to Musk’s musings, said: “SpaceX is well aware, having benefitted from its own frequent protests and court filings against NASA and the US Air Force, that such actions are common practice in the government procurement process.”
You cannot sue your way to the moon.