- [Commentator] Ladies and gentlemen, it's the tech billionaire death match you all haven't been waiting for. No, seriously, they are planning to fight. In one corner, Twitter owner Elon Musk! (crowd cheers) In the other, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. (crowd cheers) (bell ringing) (fists thudding)
(fighters groaning) (bell ringing)
(crowd groaning) - Okay, so yes, this is funny, but it's also getting kind of serious. Last week, Elon Musk tweeted that he'd be up for a cage
fight with Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg said, "Send me location." Musk said, "Vegas Octagon." Dana White, the president of the UFC told "The Wall Street
Journal" that he has spoken to both Zuckerberg and
Musk about a face-off. "They are both dead serious," White said. And now here we are but
this fight is much deeper than two big egoed billionaires. The history of the tech industry has been about companies fighting over us, the users, and our dollars. Oh, and yes, different ideologies. This fight is no different, except, well, the possibility of a real celebrity death match. - Let's get it on. - So, allow me to explain
what's really happening in this fight and how it's indicative of this new emerging tech battlefield, with the help of these guys. - [Announcer] Custom action
figures may not precisely replicate the likeness
of the real individuals. - [Joanna] Let's look at
the history of this fight. Musk and Zuckerberg have
actually partnered in the past. In 2016, Musk's SpaceX
was supposed to take Facebook's internet
satellites up to orbit until. (explosion rumbling) At the time, Zuckerberg said
he was deeply disappointed. Things really blew up in 2018 though when it was revealed
that Cambridge Analytica had acquired and used personal
data from Facebook users. Musk's Tesla and SpaceX deleted their company Facebook pages, and Musk tweeted, "It's
not a political statement and I didn't do this because
someone dared me to do it. Just don't like Facebook. Gives me the willies. Sorry." And again, in 2022, he
tweeted something similar. "Facebook gives me the willies." That was just a few weeks before Musk initiated an acquisition of Twitter, which officially put these two up against each other as
competing Social Media CEOs. Musk said he wanted Twitter to be- - [Musk] An inclusive
arena for free speech. - [Joanna] He specifically talked about political neutrality, something he didn't think that was found in other social networks. - My understanding is that Zuckerberg spent $400
million in the last election, normally in a get out the vote campaign, but really fundamentally
in support of Democrats. Is that accurate or not accurate? - That is accurate. - Does that sound unbiased to you? - A Meta spokeswoman directed me to this Zuckerberg post from 2020, which said that these
partisan claims were false. Meanwhile, Musk has been courting more folks from the right, including Tucker Carlson himself. So yes, there's differing ideology, but also users and money. In 2022, Twitter reported an estimated 238 million daily active users. Meta's Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp have 3 billion daily active users and a far bigger ad business. But Musk's takeover of Twitter has pushed Meta to build
a Twitter competitor, reported to be called Threads. It's said to be a
text-based social network, like Twitter, with
integration with Instagram. In an internal meeting at Meta, a top Zuckerberg lieutenant
said he had heard from public figures who
wanted a sanely run platform. That's what actually prompted, well, this. (opponent groaning)
(crowd groaning) Sure, these guys are very
public about their rivalry, but it's also representative of the broader state of
affairs right now in big tech. It used to be that
companies were frenemies. Now they just seem to be enemies. Just look at this fight chart. Yes, you have Twitter and Meta. Then Zuckerberg has been open about his beef with Apple CEO Tim Cook. Apple has limited how much data Facebook and other apps can collect
on iPhones and iPads, and the two now compete
on mixed reality headsets. Then Google and Microsoft
are now in an AI battle, building on its existing cloud fight. Google has even filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission accusing Microsoft of
anti-competitive cloud practices. And then there's Amazon, which competes with Microsoft and Google
on cloud services too. And then you've now got OpenAI, which Elon also has beef with
and competes with Google. Yeah, we're gonna need
some more action figures. So, who is gonna win in this round between Zuck and Musk? Well, Zuck clearly seems
to have the upper hand with his Jujutsu training, and a far bigger, more
prospering social media empire. But Musk claims to have
a move called The Walrus, where he just lies on top of his opponent. Or hey, maybe these billionaires just go in a totally different direction. Yeah, I doubt it. (upbeat music) Wanna just go get some Sweet Baby Ray's? Sure. Wanna come on my private plane? We can eat it there. Okay.
