Jeff Bezos says society benefits more when his companies do well than when he gives to charity — and Elon Musk agrees

That remark, made as Bezos sat in front of one of his Blue Origin rockets, raised a lot of eyebrows on social media, but one high-profile user stood firmly on Bezos’s side. Elon Musk retweeted the portion of the interview with this quote, adding the comment, “True.”

(The Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s Musk Foundation distributed $474 million in charitable donations in 2024, falling short of the 5% minimum annual payout legally required by the IRS for private foundations. The majority of the grants were given to entities controlled by Musk.)

A wide-ranging talk

Bezos discussed several topics in his conversation with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin. He dismissed fears about AI taking jobs and said he believes Donald Trump is a “more mature, more disciplined version of himself” in his second term. He also dismissed critics who have accused him of pandering to Trump.

“I’m on the side of America,” he said. “And that’s where business leaders should be.”

Still, it was his comments on wealth that got the most attention. He pushed back on talk that he did not pay enough in taxes, saying, “People sometimes say that, you know, I don’t pay taxes. Not true. I pay billions of dollars in taxes. ... You could double the taxes I pay, and it’s not going to help that teacher in Queens. I promise you.” Sorkin had earlier brought up teachers unions in New York.

(That remark quickly got a reply from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who wrote, “I know a few teachers in Queens who would beg to differ.”)

An earlier remark Bezos made was in support of a policy to eliminate taxes for the bottom half of U.S. earners: “A nurse in Queens who makes $75,000 a year pays more than $12,000 a year in taxes. Does that really make sense?”

But Bezos also accused politicians of utilizing an “age-old technique” of “picking a villain and pointing fingers.” In this case, he said, the villain was the rich.