Tesla’s Elon Musk referred to Jeff Bezos as a copycat after the news broke that Amazon is now acquiring self-driving start-up, Zoox. This is not actually the first time Musk has referenced the similarities between some of Amazon’s moves and those of Tesla and SpaceX, or the first time Musk has suggested Bezos is a copycat.
When it comes to tech CEOs, there are not many more well-known or doing more right now than Musk and Bezos. While Amazon has been one of the major retailers delivering goods to people during the COVID-19 outbreak, Musk’s SpaceX just recently carried two astronauts to the International Space Station in a historic launch for the United States. In fact, the two also appear to be currently competing over a NASA Moon landing system project as well.
Earlier today, reports surfaced detailing how Amazon is now in the process of buying Zoox, a company that specializes in autonomous ride-hailing. With Musk’s Tesla already highly involved in the self-driving market, and after seeing one of the reports of the acquisition on social media, Musk retweeted the report with a message referring to Bezos as a copycat. Technically, Musk didn’t actually say “copycat" and instead, said “copy” followed by a cat emoji, topped off with a "haha."
Taking this one Tweet on its own is one thing, and while Musk's "haha" heavily implies it was meant as a joke, this is only the latest instance of Musk directly mentioning Bezos in a Tweet relating to the way Amazon operates and its business decisions. For example, Amazon was recently accused of banning the sale of a book and while Amazon reversed that decision, citing the removal as an accident, Musk took the opportunity to point out how it is "time to break up Amazon" and that "monopolies are wrong," while also tagging Bezos.
Going back even further and a far more similar situation emerged. On this occasion, news broke that Amazon was planning to launch more than 3,000 internet satellites. Again, this is an industry Musk is already involved in through SpaceX and that connection was not lost on the CEO, considering Musk replied to one of the reports by tagging Bezos and saying “copy.” Again, along with the same cat image, and this time no "haha."
Besides the fact that Musk appears to like tagging Bezos in Tweets, the Amazon founder never actually seems to reply. Furthermore, although Musk also likes to highlight how Amazon tends to make similar moves to Musk’s companies, that is probably to be expected. Both of these CEOs and their companies are operating at the forefront of technology and both appear to be focused on multiple projects at the same time. Therefore, the similarities in business decisions between Amazon and Tesla (and SpaceX) are more coincidental, than anything else. Of course, with this not being the first time that the Tesla CEO has referred to Bezos and Amazon as copying, it probably won’t be the last either.
Source: Elon Musk/Twitter
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