Don’t expect Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk to hold their cage match anytime soon.
The unlikely mixed-martial arts match between two of the world’s most high-profile tech titans got even less likely this weekend after Meta CEO Zuckerberg said it is “time to move on” from speculation about the fight.
“I think we can all agree Elon isn’t serious and it’s time to move on,” Zuckerberg wrote Sunday (Aug. 13) on Threads, his company’s answer to Musk’s Twitter/X platform.
He added that he had put forward a specific date and that Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White had offered to make the fight a legitimate charity competition.
“Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead,” Zuckerberg wrote. “If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me.”
Musk replied on Twitter Sunday with “Can’t wait to bang on his door tomorrow” followed by the “crying with laughter” emoji.
Can’t wait to bang on his door tomorrow 🤣
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 13, 2023
Musk tweeted Friday (Aug. 11) that an MRI earlier in the week had revealed “a problem with my right shoulder blade rubbing against my ribs, which requires minor surgery. Recovery will only take a few months.”
I spent 3 hours in an MRI machine on Monday. Bottom line is that my C5/C6 fusion is solid, so not an issue.
However, there is a problem with my right shoulder blade rubbing against my ribs, which requires minor surgery. Recovery will only take a few months.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 11, 2023
While the physical fight may never materialize, the two moguls are already engaged in a battle as their companies compete in the artificial intelligence (AI) and social media sectors.
Last month, Meta launched Threads, a new platform meant to rival Twitter as that platform struggles. At first, Threads had a promising start, racking up more than 100 million users in its first two weeks.
But despite this auspicious debut, PYMNTS reported that user engagement on the app began to fall, with the average time users spend on Threads dipping from 19 minutes to four minutes as well as a decline in the number of daily active users of 70% from its peak to 13 million.
Last month also saw Musk debut xAI, an AI company led by him and staffed with veterans of companies such as Google, Microsoft and OpenAI.
Meta’s own AI efforts include last month’s launch of a commercial version of its open-source AI model Llama 2, created in partnership with Microsoft.