The tech billionaires are bickering again.
On Sunday evening, Jeff Bezos tweeted a throwback image in anticipation of a Washington Post piece about the toxic work culture at his space travel company, Blue Origin. Bezos, who owns the Post, had been notified the story would be running soon.
Even though Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had nothing to do with the situation, Musk couldn’t keep from inserting himself, responding with a second-place medal emoji later Sunday night.
After the Post article ran Monday morning, it became clear that Bezos’ Sunday tweet was preemptively defending Blue Origin as a disruptor in the space industry. He’d posted a Barron’s cover article from 1999 doubting Amazon’s success. Amazon, of course, has become a $100-billion-plus company.
Musk’s response, a second-place medal emoji, was swift and simple.
Musk and Bezos have had a years-long rivalry. Musk is particularly petty about being first to space and for claiming many government contracts with SpaceX. He’s called out Bezos for being a “copycat” and second-best before. This isn’t new.
But this time Musk stepped into something more than a space race. Bezos was trying to defend his company’s culture with the tweet, even though he declined to comment for the article. The Post spoke to more than 20 current and former employees and obtained an employee memo criticizing Blue Origin’s chief executive and more. The memo, from an unnamed mid-level employee, said, “Our current culture is toxic to our success.”
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Bezos’ tweet seemed to imply that the article and its claims won’t stop Blue Origin from reaching Amazon levels of success. Bezos stepped down as Amazon CEO in July before launching into orbit on a Blue Origin rocket.
Musk, for his part, is keeping the rivalry going, even when he shouldn’t be when it comes to company culture.
