Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos met for dinner in 2004.
Tesla boss Elon Musk and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos have been fighting publicly for years, but few know that the two met once for a friendly dinner in 2004. A photograph of the meeting is going viral on the networks social – and even captured Elon Musk’s attention, who reacted to it on Twitter.
Although Musk and Bezos are not rivals in any earthly business – the former made a fortune with electric cars, the latter with e-commerce – the two have similar space ambitions. Jeff Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000, two years before Elon Musk launched Space Exploration Technologies Corporation or SpaceX.
In recent years, Blue Origin and SpaceX have clashed over launch pad rental opportunities, landing pad patents and more, reports GeekWire. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk occasionally lock their rockets and their different plans for space exploration.
But in 2004, the two companies were still in their infancy. That was when Mr. Musk and Mr. Bezos had one of their few personal interactions when they met for dinner. Even so, things were difficult between the two.
“In fact, I did my best to give good advice, which he largely ignored,” said Elon Musk after the meeting, according to Yahoo News.
A photo of the meeting was shared on Twitter earlier this month and caught Elon Musk’s attention on Sunday. “Wow, hard to believe it was 17 years ago!” he wrote while reacting to the photo, which shows the two billionaires at a dinner table.
Wow, hard to believe it was 17 years ago!
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 21, 2021
The photograph received thousands of ‘likes’ and comments on the microblogging platform.
“The guy behind has no idea that he has 2 absolute legends sitting next to him,” wrote a Twitter user.
“While SpaceX vs. Blue Origin brings good headlines and interesting comparisons / contrasts, they have different goals and the space is big enough for both. I don’t think they are competing in the traditional sense,” said another.
Elon Musk overtook Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world in January, before the head of Amazon regained the title.
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