Jeff Bezos announced plan to buy X from Elon Musk for $333 million? Not true | Fact check
The claim: Jeff Bezos announced plan to buy X platform for $333 million
A Feb. 20 Threads post (direct link, archive link) claims the founder of Amazon announced a plan to purchase a social media platform run by a rival billionaire.
“BREAKING NEWS: Jeff Bezos responded to Elon Musk by posting an announcement to buy X for $333 million. Making Elon Musk angry and speak out,” the post's text reads.
The Threads post received more than 500 likes in four days.
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Our rating: False
There is no record of any such announcement from Bezos or of the social media exchange referenced in the post.
No evidence of Bezos announcement about X
The Threads post appears to tap into the friction between the two richest people in the world. In November 2024, the two had a spat on social media in which Musk accused Bezos of telling people to sell their Tesla and SpaceX stock because Republican Donald Trump was going to lose the presidential election – an accusation Bezos denied. Bezos and Musk were among the billionaires who sat together at Trump’s inauguration in January.
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Contrary to the claim in the Threads post, however, Bezos did not post any announcement about a plan to purchase the X platform for $333 million.
There is no record of a post containing the purported announcement on either of Bezos’ verified Instagram or X accounts. Nor is there any record of an "angry" response from Musk on his X account. A statement about a transaction between the world's wealthiest people would certainly generate media coverage, but no legitimate outlets have reported anything about the purported offer or the supposed exchange between the men on social media that the post references.
The Threads post contains a link to a longer article published Feb. 14 by a disreputable website. That article purports to quote social media posts from both men. However, their profiles contain no record of the posts attributed to them.
Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in 2022 and renamed it X. The platform is attempting to raise money from investors, and that move is based on the company being valued at $44 billion, Bloomberg News reported Feb. 19. Had Bezos announced a plan to buy it and set the price at $333 million – an amount 99% less than Musk paid for it – such a valuation would make no sense.
Paste BN previously debunked false claims that Musk said he would not sell Cybertrucks to the “pride” community and donated $10 million to support the families of Jan. 6 defendants.
Paste BN reached out to the social media user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response.
Our fact-check sources
- Jeff Bezos, accessed Feb. 21, X profile
- Jeff Bezos, accessed Feb. 21, Instagram profile
- Elon Musk, accessed Feb. 21, X profile
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