Elon Musk Says He's Sending Jeff Bezos a Silver Medal After Surpassing Him in Wealth The rivalry between the two billionaires doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon.
By Chloe Arrojado Edited by Jessica Thomas
On Monday, Elon Musk reached a net worth of $200 billion and became the richest person in the world — again. He's only the third person in history to reach this milestone, after Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and luxury businessman Bernard Arnault respectively.
In an email to Forbes, Musk took the occasion as an opportunity to poke fun at Bezos, who previously held the title of world's richest person.
"I'm sending a giant statue of the digit "2' to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal," Musk wrote in the email.
The comment comes as no surprise as Musk and Bezos have had a longstanding rivalry in the space realm. The two have been battling it out since NASA's decision to award Musk's SpaceX exclusive rights to build lunar-landing vehicles was met with outcry from Bezos' space company Blue Origin.
The rivalry remains strong as Musk further criticized the Amazon founder on Tuesday at the CodeCon 2021 conference in Beverly Hills, California, where he said Bezos should putting more energy into getting to orbit and less into lawsuits.
"You cannot sue your way to the moon, no matter how good your lawyers are," Musk remarked.
Bezos responded to Musk's comments by issuing a statement to CNBC on Wednesday.
"SpaceX has a long track record of suing the U.S. government on procurement matters and protesting various governmental decisions. It is difficult to reconcile that historical record with their recent position on others filing similar actions," an Amazon spokesperson wrote in the statement.
Despite their conflicts, the two billionaires sometimes showcase some semblance of goodwill for one another. Earlier this month, Bezos congratulated Musk and SpaceX on the launch of all-civilian flight Inspiration4. In response to his message, Musk tweeted a simple "Thank you".
Thank you
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 16, 2021
Related: Why is Elon Musk So Successful? It All Comes Down to These 5 Key Personality Traits
