Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman or Melinda French Gates are billionaires who have been publicly criticized by Elon Musk for various reasons.
Elon Musk. Photo: Bloomberg.
Famous for his strong personality, Elon Musk has repeatedly made statements targeting famous figures in the technology world. Most of the comments posted on X, the social network he bought in 2022 when he was still under the name Twitter.
“Have I ever shot myself in the leg many times? Yes. I don’t think I should tweet after 3 a.m. If you want to tweet controversial content, save the draft and read it again the next day to see if you still want to post it,” Musk told the BBC in April 2023.
Although quite cautious, the Tesla CEO still has many controversial statements. These are the billionaires he has “declared war” since the beginning of the year, figuratively and literally.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO Meta
In June 2023, Musk challenged Mark Zuckerberg to a ring match amid rumors that Meta was developing a platform to compete with X.
“I’m willing to fight if he wants to,” Musk said in a post on June 20, 2023 on X.
“Send me the location,” Zuckerberg responded on Instagram the next day.
As rumored, Meta introduced the social network Threads in July 2023, focusing on simple text content.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth reached $181 billion. Photo: Bloomberg.
According to Business Insider, the contract between the 2 billionaires has temporarily calmed down. In early August 2023, Musk said he had to have minor surgery because of some injuries. Just half an hour earlier, the Tesla CEO announced that the match took place at a “monumental location” in ancient Rome and was livestreamed.
Zuckerberg no longer seems to care about fighting, but Musk hasn’t forgotten yet. In March this year, the billionaire once again wanted to hold a match.
“If only Zuckerberg was tough. I offer to fight him anywhere, anytime with any rules, but all I hear is silence,” Musk wrote on X on May 15, a day after Zuckerberg celebrated his 40th birthday.
Sam Altman, CEO OpenAI
Sam Altman used to have a good relationship with Musk. The two co-founded OpenAI in 2015. However, the difference in thinking and how to operate the startup caused the 2 people to be at odds.
In February, Musk sued OpenAI and Altman, accusing the company of violating its nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft. The Tesla CEO withdrew the lawsuit in June, just a day before a judge considered OpenAI’s request to dismiss the lawsuit.
“Will talk more about this later,” Musk said about withdrawing the lawsuit.
Sam Altman has a net worth of at least $2 billion. Photo: Bloomberg.
Since OpenAI grew with ChatGPT, Musk has often criticized the company and Altman’s leadership.
OpenAI was founded as open source (that’s why I named it ‘Open’ AI), a non-profit company to compete with Google. Now it has become a closed, for-profit company and tightly controlled by Microsoft,” Musk wrote on X.
Despite the criticism, Altman still appeared polite when talking about his former colleague. In Lex Fridman’s podcast in March, the OpenAI leader said that the lawsuit left him bewildered, and wanted Musk to sympathize with OpenAI’s ambitions.
“Not long ago, Musk frantically talked about rocket launches to everyone’s ridicule, so I think he’ll be more sympathetic about this,” Altman said.
“Shark” Mark Cuban
Billionaire Mark Cuban is often criticized by Musk. The two disagreed on many topics such as diversity, equality and inclusion in the workplace (DEI), opinions about US President Joe Biden…
“Mark Cuban tries to show virtue, but his hypocrisy won’t convince anyone,” Musk said on X in January after Cuban voiced support for DEI policies at the company.
Musk once called Cuban a “racist” for supporting DEI, but the article was deleted.
Mark Cuban’s fortune is about $7.46 billion. Photo: Bloomberg.
In March, Musk mocked Cuban after the “star” of the Shark Tank program confirmed that he would vote for Biden even if he did not live long.
Cuban, though, doesn’t seem to mind Musk’s criticism.
“I’m very happy to ‘fight’ with Elon. He likes trolls and so do I. I don’t have a problem at all,” Cuban said in an interview with Business Insider.
MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Jeff Bezos
In a post on March 6, Musk criticized the charity action of MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos.
Specifically, the billionaire said that “ex-wives of super-rich people” should be listed in the book “Reasons for the Decline of Western Civilization”.
MacKenzie Scott (right) has a net worth of $38.6 billion. Photo: FilmMagic.
Scott’s charitable actions became a concern for Musk. In May 2022, the Tesla CEO said that his companies were being ignored by the Democratic administration, partly because Scott donated to a “charitable organization called PAC”.
Scott was married to Bezos for 25 years, divorcing in 2019. As part of the asset division clause, Scott received shares in Amazon worth $38 billion.
Bezos’ ex-wife is even more charitable after Musk’s statement. On March 19, she said she would donate $640 million to 361 organizations, double the $250 million announced last year.
Melinda French Gates, ex-wife of Bill Gates
In June, Musk criticized Melinda French Gates, Bill Gates’ ex-wife, after she voiced her support for Biden.
“It could be the collapse of Western civilization,” the Tesla CEO wrote in a post on June 20.
Melinda French Gates has a net worth of $13.3 billion. Photo: Bloomberg.
Musk also doesn’t like Bill Gates too much. Author Walter Isaacson’s biography of Musk has a passage that states that the Tesla CEO was “very angry” when he learned that Bill had shorted shares in Tesla.
“Why do people say they want to fight climate change, but then take action to reduce investment in the company that contributes the most? It’s complete hypocrisy,” Musk told Isaacson.
Shortly afterwards, Musk declined an invitation to cooperate with Bill in a charitable partnership. On X, the billionaire also posted a meme comparing the Microsoft co-founder with an emoji of a pregnant man.
“Leave it here when you want to lose weight quickly,” Musk wrote.
Vinod Khosla, OpenAI investor
Unlike most of the billionaires on the list, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla attacked Musk first.
“For @elonmusk, it seems a bit bitter to sue @OpenAI, not early enough, not maintaining commitment and now having the same attitude as an opponent,” Khosla wrote on X in March, after Musk founded the artificial intelligence (AI) startup xAI.
Vinod Khosla has a net worth of $7.7 billion. Photo: Bloomberg.
“It’s like they say if you can’t innovate, litigate and that’s what’s happening. Elon’s old self will build with us to achieve the goal,” Khosla added.
Responding to Khosla, Musk only said that he “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” A few days later, the investor also posted a meme mocking xAI.