Jeff Bezos Says Elon Musk’s Claims Are ‘100% Not True’ After Tesla CEO Rekindles Their Feud

• Elon Musk reignited his long-running feud with Jeff Bezos in an X post on Thursday.

• Musk said Bezos told people to sell Tesla and SpaceX shares because Donald Trump would lose.

• Bezos said Musk’s claim was “100% not true,” to which Musk replied, “I stand corrected.”

Elon Musk has taken aim at Jeff Bezos once again and rebooted war of words between two of the world’s richest people.

In an X post Thursday, Musk said Bezos had told people to dump their shares in his companies because Donald Trump was bound to lose the presidential election.

Hours later, Bezos responded that the claim was “100% not true.” That prompted Musk to write, “Well, I stand corrected,” followed by a crying-laughing emoji.

Business Insider was unable to confirm the accuracy of Musk’s post.

Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, spent more than 130 million dollars supports Trump’s re-election. He confronted Trump on stage at campaign rallies and warned X that America would “descend to tyranny” if the former president was not re-elected.

Since the election, Musk has spent time at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Florida resort, and has been appointed by the president-elect to help lead a “Department of Government Efficiency” to reduce wasteful spending.

He said on X Wednesday that he hadn’t had much input into the president-elect’s cabinet selection.

Musk’s comments about Bezos suggested the Amazon founder and executive chairman expected Musk’s close ties to Trump would mean Tesla and SpaceX would take a hit if Trump lost the election.

Tesla shares rose 44% between Nov. 4 — the day before the election — and Nov. 11, suggesting investors saw the automaker benefiting from a Trump victory. SpaceX is not publicly traded, but its shares are traded on private markets.

Technology and wealth rivals

Musk and Bezos are worth more than $500 billion combined, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

They hold leadership roles at Tesla and Amazon, two of the world’s most valuable companies. They are rivals in areas such as artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and self-driving cars, and they both run space companies that compete for government contracts.

As a result, possibly personal enmity that Musk holds over Bezos may be significant. He has previously branded Bezos a copycat, trolled him to be no. 2 on the wealth listcomplained about his lawsuits against SpaceX, writing: “Time to break up Amazon. Monopolies are wrong!”

Thomas Roulet, professor of organizational sociology and management at the University of Cambridge, told BI in an email: “We can certainly expect Elon Musk to take advantage of his proximity to the Trump administration, particularly in areas where he faces direct competition from other technology companies and when regulations can make or break economic success – self-driving cars, for example.”

“This message about Bezos is a way to give themselves an excuse to make it legal by saying ‘Bezos started it,'” Roulet added.

Bezos has expressed skepticism about Musk’s vision of colonizing Mars and once suggested that Musk’s takeover of Twitter, now X, could complicate things for Tesla in China.

Musk has clashed with other tech leaders, including Bill Gates. He took on the Microsoft co-founder for shorting Tesla shares and questioned why Gates would bet against a clean energy company while sounding the alarm about the climate crisis.

Amazon, Tesla and representatives for Trump did not respond to requests for comment.

November 22, 2024: This story has been updated to include Bezos’ response to Musk’s Thursday X post and Musk’s response to Bezos.

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