() — Business rivalry is apparently not enough for two of the tech industry’s most powerful billionaires. Now Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg say they want to settle scores in a cage fight.
Twitter owner and Tesla CEO Musk recently tweeted that he would be “willing to have a cage fight” with Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta. In an Instagram Story on Wednesday, Zuckerberg responded by posting a screenshot of Musk’s tweet overlaid with the caption: “Send me location.”
Musk later responded to a tweet about the fight by Alex Heath, editor of the tech news website Verge, with “Vegas Octagon,” a reference to the Las Vegas arena that is home to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
“I have this great move I call ‘The Walrus’ where I just lie on top of my opponent and do nothing,” he added in a separate tweet.
has contacted Meta for comment. A company spokesperson told Verge: “The story [de Instagram] speaks for itself.”
It’s unclear if Zuckerberg and Musk are serious or joking.
The two, who in the past competed for a high spot on Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index before Musk became the world’s richest man, have clashed before.
Musk and Zuckerberg have their track record
In 2017, they got into a very public dispute over the future of artificial intelligence.
Musk had repeatedly warned about the dangers of AI, describing it as a potentially existential threat to the human race. Zuckerberg, on the other hand, took a much more optimistic view.
During a Facebook Live broadcast at the time, he dismissed “negatives” who outlined “doomsday scenarios” as “pretty irresponsible.”
Musk responded shortly after, tweeting: “I have spoken to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is quite limited.”
Musk knocked Zuckerberg out of the No. 3 spot on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in 2020, then became the world’s richest person shortly thereafter.
Bernard Arnault, chairman of French luxury goods giant LVMH, briefly ousted him from the top spot in December, and Musk then regained his title in May. Zuckerberg is now in tenth position.
However, it remains to be seen who would win in a cage fight. Musk is physically bigger than Zuckerberg, but the Meta boss practices Jiu Jitsuthe Brazilian martial art, and won gold and silver at a tournament in May.
