Bezos doesn’t believe Musk will use political power against rivals

Jeff Bezos says he is not worried about the growing political power of fellow billionaire and space rival Elon Musk.

The Amazon (AMZN+0.18%) The founder, now focused on his space company Blue Origin, called Musk’s SpaceX “very good competitors” in an interview with the annual New York Times. (NYT-0.06%) DealBook Summit on Wednesday.

“I take at face value what has been said, which is that he will not use his political power to favor his own companies or disadvantage his competitors,” Bezos said, adding that he “could be wrong about that.” but I.” I think it might be true.

Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported (NWSA+0.02%) reported that Bezos, OpenAI boss Sam Altmanand other tech and business leaders who have crossed paths with Musk in the past are worried about his influential relationship with Donald Trump. The president-elect himself has called Amazon a monopoly and nicknamed Bezos “Jeff Bozo.”

After Blue Origin protested against a $2.9 billion contract between SpaceX and NASA In 2021, Musk responded to a New York Times report about it: Write to X: “Can’t get it into orbit, lol.” Musk also nicknamed Bezos’ company “Sue Origin” after it petitioned the FAA to restrict some SpaceX launches.

“I have had a lot of success in life without being cynical,” Bezos said at the DealBook Summit. “And I think that cynicism – why be cynical about it? Let us address this and hope that the statements made are correct and that this is done conscientiously in the public interest. And if that turns out to be naive, then we’ll see. But I actually think it’s going to be great.”

Bezos said he is “optimistic this time” about Trump’s second term and that he has a “good chance of success” with his agenda to reduce regulations in business.

The billionaire, who also owns the Washington Post, told the newspaper controversial decision The decision not to support a presidential candidate in 2024 was made because “it would not influence the election in any way.”

In response to a question about Trump’s “idea” that “the press is the enemy,” Bezos responded that he would “try to talk him out of that idea.”