It is one tech uber-billionaire’s word against another.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Thursday pushed back on Elon Musk’s claim he anticipated Donald Trump would lose the election and that his investors should sell their stock in SpaceX and Tesla, two of the companies he runs.
“Nope. 100% not true,” Bezos posted on X, in response to Musk’s late Wednesday post.
Musk said he’d “learned” Bezos was “telling everyone” to sell their shares and that Trump would lose to the presidential race to Kamala Harris. That, of course, turned out to not be the case, with Trump winning the electoral college 312 to 226 earlier this month.
Tesla’s share price has rocketed higher since then, increasing 40.3% since Election Day. Musk was Trump’s biggest public supporter and spent more than $100 million via his America PAC to help him return to the White House. Wall Street is betting on Trump being better for Musk’s electric car company than if Democrats had won — even with Trump’s team aiming to kill the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit.
SpaceX recently sued a California commission, claiming its political bias against Musk blocked the company from launching more rockets. Shortly after, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom said he was “with Elon” and that state officials were wrong to consider Musk’s politics when considering rocket launches.
In other recent political news, Bezos thwarted the Washington Post editorial board’s plan to endorse Harris for president.
Musk’s net worth has climbed alongside Tesla’s share price recently and helped solidify him as the world’s richest person. He’s worth $314.5 billion on Thursday, according to Forbes’ billionaire tracker. Bezos is the world’s third-richest person, per Forbes, with a net worth of $215.2 billion.
This isn’t the first time Musk and Bezos have disagreed publicly. Both men have their own rocket companies — SpaceX for Musk and Blue Origin for Bezos. In 2021, Musk mocked Bezos after Blue Origin protested NASA awarding SpaceX a contract, posting he “Can’t get it up (to orbit) lol.”