Jeff Bezos Friended the Wrong Foreign Leaders

Jeff Bezos Friended the Wrong Foreign Leaders

Amazon first bet big on India in 2014, when Bezos stood on the top of a flatbed truck in ceremonial Indian wedding garb and presented the chief of his local operation with an oversized $2 billion check.. Bezos's relationship with Saudi Arabia started with similar hopes.. According to last week's reports, Bezos and Prince Mohammed met at a 2018 dinner party in Los Angeles and exchanged phone numbers.. Saudi officials have said the crown prince had no involvement in the murder of Khashoggi or the cyberattack on Bezos.. Now a Twitter account linked to the Saudi government is advocating for an Amazon boycott .. The Saudi government under Prince Mohammed has fueled conflict in Yemen, persecuted religious and political dissidents and unleashed coordinated Twitter attacks and other cyber tactics on its perceived enemies.. Amazon wasn't alone in pinning unrealistic hopeson these leaders.. And in 2018 the Saudi crown prince cultivated many tech leaders who would likely be wary of such photo ops today.. It wasn't too long ago that tech leaders were overly optimistic about China, too.. But the world, and these leaders, have veered starkly away from this brand of idealism..