Take the silver, boytjie: Elon Musk throws shade at Jeff Bezos in world’s richest man battle

SA-born billionaire Elon Musk had the internet in meltdown mode on Monday when he threw shade at Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

The pair have been battling it out for the title of world’s richest man, with Musk pulling ahead in recent months.

How rich is the dude? Well, last week Bloomberg reported that Musk added $11bn (R165bn) to his fortune after his latest Space X valuation. He is now valued at $223bn (R3.3-trillion). Bezos sits at about $191.6bn (R2.8-trillion).

While there are several issues with comparing his wealth to the GDP of countries, according to Stats SA, real GDP in SA in the second quarter of 2021 was R1.1bn.

And Musk isn’t afraid to show off his status as the richest man on earth, this week reminding his nearest rival of his accomplishment.

It all started when Bezos took to the Twitter TL to reflect on the success of Amazon, despite predictions in its early years that it would bomb.

“Listen and be open, but don’t let anybody tell you who you are. This was just one of the many stories telling us all the ways we were going to fail.

“Today, Amazon is one of the world’s most successful companies and has revolutionised two entirely different industries,” Bezos said.

Musk’s reply was short and savage: a silver medal emoji.

Musk had earlier said he would send Bezos a medal and statue of the number two, after surpassing the Blue Origin founder.

“I’m sending a giant statue of the digit ‘2’ to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal,” Musk told Forbes in an email.