Yahoo Finance Elon Musk mocks former world’s richest man Jeff Bezos after claiming crown
The world’s richest person, Elon Musk, has sent a dig to the man he toppled for the title, Jeff Bezos, after his wealth soared nearly US$30 billion higher than the Amazon founder’s.
Bezos, who is worth US$191 billion (AU$261 billion), shared an old cover story from 1999 describing him as “another middleman”, and that the stock market was “beginning to catch onto that fact”.
“Listen and be open, but don’t let anybody tell you who you are. This was just one of the many stories telling us all the ways we were going to fail,” Bezos tweeted on Monday.
“Today, Amazon is one of the world’s most successful companies and has revolutionised two entirely different industries.”
Listen and be open, but don’t let anybody tell you who you are. This was just one of the many stories telling us all the ways we were going to fail. Today, Amazon is one of the world’s most successful companies and has revolutionized two entirely different industries. pic.twitter.com/MgMsQHwqZl
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) October 11, 2021
Musk, the $302 billion founder of Tesla, responded with a silver medal emoji.
While the message behind the emoji is clear, it also won’t be a surprise to Bezos after Musk warned in September that he was planning to mock Bezos.
🥈
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 11, 2021
“I’m sending a giant statue of the digit ‘2’ to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal,” Musk said in an email to Forbes.
Musk’s net worth increased by about $15 billion last week as his space company, SpaceX, surpassed $136 billion in value, taking his net worth with it.
It comes as the two billionaires also race to grow space-based businesses, with Bezos ascending into suborbital space in July on a 10-minute launch.
However, Musk, who owns SpaceX, has criticised the Bezos-owned Blue Origin and Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, as failing to invest enough in reaching orbit.
Blue Origin has claimed SpaceX’s Starship rocket is dangerous.
In April, the American space research agency NASA awarded a major $3.9 billion contract to SpaceX, leading Blue Origin to sue NASA, claiming the contract was awarded unfairly.
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