Bezos denies Musk's claim he told people to sell Tesla and SpaceX stock since Trump would lose
Jeff Bezos has officially thrown cold water on Elon Musk’s latest claim about his billionaire rival.
In a late-night post on Wednesday, the Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX CEO claimed that Bezos had warned “everyone” to sell off stock in his companies if Vice President Kamala Harris won the 2024 presidential election. Musk made a major bet — which appears to have paid off — that President-elect Donald Trump would win, repeatedly making claims that a Harris administration would seek retribution from him.
“Just learned tonight at Mar-a-Lago that Jeff Bezos was telling everyone that @realDonaldTrump would lose for sure, so they should sell all their Tesla and SpaceX stock,” Musk wrote on X, the social media platform he owns, adding an emoji at the end.
There’s just one problem with Musk’s claim. According to Bezos, who would likely benefit from a federal government opposed to Musk, it’s utterly false.
“Nope. 100% not true,” Bezos said in a rare post on X. He’s posted on the platform just four times in 2024, including writing a message earlier this month congratulating Trump on his victory and a statement following the first attempted assassination on the then-Republican candidate for president.
It’s the latest shot fired in the rivalry between the two tech leaders, who are the first and second richest individuals in the world, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index. Musk’s net worth has hit $331 billion after Tesla’s stock boomed following Trump’s victory, and his xAI and SpaceX are reportedly eyeing major valuation surges. Bezos is worth $226 billion, largely thanks to his Amazon (AMZN) holdings.
Musk’s SpaceX is a dominant force in the aerospace industry, while Bezos’ Blue Origin is building itself into a rival. This week, NASA asked both companies to develop cargo landers to deliver equipment to the Moon as part of its Artemis missions. The two firms and the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture from Boeing (BA) and Lockheed Martin (LMT), will be fighting for national security space mission contracts over the next five years.
Blue Origin has previously protested a contract NASA gave SpaceX and sought to limit SpaceX’s Starship launches, while Amazon’s Kuiper has opposed SpaceX’s plans to expand its Starlink satellite network. In 2020, Musk called for the government to break up Amazon, complaining about monopolies.
