The Incredible Ambitions, and Rivalry, of Musk and Bezos
Space is hard, and expensive. The U.S. is relying on some of its wealthiest individuals to help it get there.
In March 2025, the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, announced the elimination of unused purchasing cards and the termination of $420 million in unneeded contracts. This included $45 million in contracts to three separate consultants. As my colleague Josh Tyrangiel details in his new cover story for The Atlantic, SpaceX may not exist today without the $1.6 billion contract it received from NASA in 2008 to resupply the International Space Station.
Musk's space ambitions are well-known, and perhaps only matched by the ambitions of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. In 2018, Bezos revealed his vision for converting his Amazon winnings into space travel. Both Musk and Bezos recognize that space exploration is not a great business right now, but they see potential in the future of satellites connected to data centers in space and AI models with high computing power and energy needs.
This could create a virtuous loop that makes it difficult for competitors to match their performance in any part of the vertically integrated business.
Written by urgent.news from The Atlantic's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
