Elon Musk has some tough words for his fellow billionaire-space rival, Jeff Bezos.
The Tesla founder was recently named as TIME's Person of the Year, so naturally he took the opportunity to reflect on life as a billionaire during 2021 in a recent interview with the Financial Times.
Of particular interest was, of course, his ongoing space race with Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos.
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Musk spoke of Bezos like any decent competitor, calling him a ‘friend’ with ‘reasonably good engineering aptitude’.
However, he savagely called out Bezos for not giving enough energy to his aerospace company, Blue Origin.
Musk told FT: “He does take himself a bit too seriously.
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“In some ways, I’m trying to goad him into spending more time at Blue Origin so they make more progress.
“As a friend of mine says, he should spend more time at Blue Origin and less time in the hot tub.”
Well, good to know how the founder of Amazon is spending his time these days.
Musk added: “He does not seem to be willing to spend mental energy getting into the details of engineering. The devil’s in the details.”
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The 50-year-old went on to discuss spending 80-90 hours a week working on Tesla and SpaceX, whilst Bezos dedicates only two days a week to his space project, Blue Origin, according to CNBC.
Competition is clearly rife between the two, as last month Blue Origin lost its legal battle against NASA after the agency pursued a $2.9 billion contract with SpaceX instead.
In a statement to People, Blue Origin said: “NASA has executed a flawed acquisition for the Human Landing System program and moved the goalposts at the last minute.
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“In NASA’s own words, it has made a ‘high risk’ selection.
“Their decision eliminates opportunities for competition, significantly narrows the supply base, and not only delays, but also endangers America’s return to the Moon.”
But clearly, Musk has made more friends than enemies this year as he was famously named as TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year.
TIME's announcement read: "For creating solutions to an existential crisis, for embodying the possibilities and the perils of the age of tech titans, for driving society’s most daring and disruptive transformations, Elon Musk is TIME’s 2021 Person of the Year."
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The magazine also wrote: "We don’t yet know how fully Tesla, SpaceX and the ventures Musk has yet to think up will change our lives.
“At 50, he has plenty of time to write the future, his own and ours. Like it or not, we are now in Musk’s world.”
Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Tesla, SpaceX, NASA