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