Amazon founder Jeff Bezos took some time out of his Sunday afternoon to respond to a tweet from Elon Musk, who polled his Twitter followers about converting Twitter’s headquarters into a homeless shelter.
Musk, chief of SpaceX and Tesla who last week revealed a 9.2% stake in the social media giant, suggested that Twitter could convert its San Francisco HQ to a shelter “since no one shows up anyway.” As of Sunday afternoon, more than 90% of the 1.7 million votes in the poll posted Saturday evening selected “yes.”
Bezos, who stepped down as CEO last year but remains chairman at Amazon, retweeted Musk’s tweet and said, “or do a portion,” with a link to GeekWire’s coverage in 2020 of a homeless shelter attached to one of Amazon’s downtown Seattle office buildings.
Update: Musk responded to Bezos a few hours later with “great idea.” But as of Monday morning his original tweet was deleted.
Amazon opened The Mary’s Place Family Center in The Regrade two years ago, and it became a critical option for those experiencing homelessness during the pandemic. With the capacity to serve 200 people per night and more than 1,000 family members per year, the shelter is the largest in Washington state. Amazon has committed $100 million in ongoing support for the facility.
Musk has frequently called out Bezos on Twitter over space satellites, lunar landers, and more, without much of a response. So it was a bit of a surprise to see Bezos respond to Musk’s musings online on Sunday.
Musk has also been tweeting about an edit feature for Twitter; deleting the “w” in the company’s name; and changes to its subscription service.
Musk is the world’s wealthiest person, with a net worth of $273 billion. Bezos is second, worth $180 billion, according to Forbes.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect news that Musk decided not to join the Twitter board.
