Breanna Robinson
Apr 26, 2022
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Amazon founder Jeff Bezos took a jab at Elon Musk after his $44bn purchase of Twitter, suggesting that it may give China “leverage.”
On Monday, Bezos shared a series of tweets that said China might gain influence over Twitter once the acquisition is complete.
“Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square?” Bezos wrote, hinting at Musk’s business links to China.
In 2018, the Tesla CEO established a factory in Shanghai, and the company heavily relies on Chinese firms to supply the materials that go into its batteries.
Musk even showed praise for China’s “economic prosperity” on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CCP.
Interesting question. Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square?https://twitter.com/pekingmike/status/1518675370895097858\u00a0\u2026— Jeff Bezos (@Jeff Bezos) 1650929384
Twitter’s board agreed to an acquisition of the company by Musk. Twitter will then be taken private at $54.20 per share in a deal valuing the firm at the $44bn.
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As for China, Twitter is banned. Beijing’s so-called “Great Firewall” blocks the accessibility of numerous Western social media platforms, which include YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.
“My own answer to this question is probably not. The more likely outcome in this regard is complexity in China for Tesla, rather than censorship at Twitter,” Bezos wrote.
He also added that Musk “is extremely good” working through “this kind of complexity,” he added.
But we\u2019ll see. Musk is extremely good at navigating this kind of complexity.— Jeff Bezos (@Jeff Bezos) 1650935171
Bezos’ sentiments are the latest in a long-running feud between the two billionaires.
The two are the world’s richest and second richest people and both have their own aeronautics companies, SpaceX and Blue Origin, respectively.
They have also gone head to head with their space ambitions over the years.
Last year, SpaceX won a $2.9bn contract for NASA’s Human Landing System program to facilitate two manned missions to the moon. This program is in charge of delivering astronauts to the moon’s surface for the agency’s planned Artemis missions.
Bezos appealed this decision in court and lost.
“Not the decision we wanted, but we respect the court’s judgment and wish full success for NASA and SpaceX on the contract,” Bezos said following the loss.
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