Elon Musk Takes Apparent Jab At ‘Puppet Master” Jeff Bezos
Tesla CEO Elon Musk appeared to take a subtle dig at Amazon founder Jeff Bezos referring to him as a ‘puppet master’ in a recent comment he made to The Washington Post, also owned by his fellow billionaire.
“Give my regards to your puppet master” was reportedly Musk’ brief reply when reached by The Post for comment about a piece they wrote on him and Tesla titled: “Elon Musk moved to Texas and embraced celebrity. Can Tesla run on Autopilot?”
The Post’s article began with an anecdote about Musk’s “exhausting schedule” of moving back around the various Tesla facilities like the one in northern California, a new factory Texas, where he moved his base, and also SpaceX’s launch facility on Texas Gulf Coast.
The publication owned by Bezos, who has feuded with Musk in the past over their competing space ambitions, then cited unnamed “critics” whom the paper said were complaining of Musk putting more focus on SpaceX — his aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company — and sacrificing Tesla, his electric vehicle and clean energy company in the process.
“In interviews with a dozen current and former Tesla employees, investors and analysts, critics pointed to a series of questionable business moves, and even outright missteps by Tesla, as a potential symptom of the outside demands on Musk,” The Post wrote.
“They described a company where Musk is less present and increasingly isolated, where subordinates are reluctant to question the CEO’s vision, and where the de facto position entails eschewing market research. It’s a top-down, shoot-by-the-hip ethos directed by Musk,” it added.
The Post then said that when reached for his reaction on such remarks, the Tesla chief’s reply was: “Give my regards to your puppet master.’”
Musk’s latest comment against Bezos, who recently reclaimed the title of the world’s richest man from Musk, trended online with some describing it as a “mic drop” comment.
.@Elonmusk just Rekt Bezos pic.twitter.com/vkKh2Fk43x
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) February 23, 2021
mic drop. pic.twitter.com/F8u7AhpmGq
— Logan Hall (@loganclarkhall) February 23, 2021
Reports cited a Tesla regulatory filing in February which said: “We are highly dependent on the services of Elon Musk, our Chief Executive Officer and largest stockholder. Although Mr. Musk spends significant time with Tesla and is highly active in our management, he does not devote his full time and attention to Tesla.”
Meanwhile, The Post in its article quoted Ed Niedermeyer, author of “Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors,” who reportedly told the publication that “there isn’t a culture at Tesla really other than ‘let’s do what Elon wants to do.’”
The publication owned by Bezos also went on to quote other critical comments against Musk like one from Jennifer Chatman, a management professor at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, which said: “We’re seeing this with Elon Musk: a lack of impulse control.”
An unnamed “employee” at Tesla also reportedly said: “He knows whatever he says, people do and he’s taking advantage of it.”
The Post, like its billionaire owner, isn’t particularly fond of the Tesla CEO. Back in April, the publication described Musk’s critical comments of California’s “fascist” lockdowns due to COVID-19 as a “public meltdown.”
“If somebody wants to stay in the house that’s great. They should be allowed to stay in the house and they should not be compelled to leave. But to say that they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do… this is fascist. This is not democratic. This is not freedom,” Musk said at that time.
FREE AMERICA NOW
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2020
In 2019, Bezos suggested that Musk’s aspiration to get humans on Mars with his company SpaceX was “unmotivating.”
“One thing that I find very unmotivating is the kind of Plan B argument: when Earth gets destroyed, you want to be somewhere else. That doesn’t work for me,” Bezos said in a February 25, 2019 interview with SpaceNews magazine.
“My friends who want to move to Mars, I say, do me a favor and go live on the top of Mount Everest for a year first, and see if you like it, because it’s a garden paradise compared to Mars,” he added.
Bezos himself owns private space company, Blue Origin.
