'Shot himself in the foot': which billionaires Elon Musk clashed with in 2024

Elon Musk admitted to his habit of making sharp posts on social media, acknowledging that he has shot himself in the foot several times. In an interview with the BBC in April 2023, Musk said, "I shot myself in the foot several times? Yes. ... I think I shouldn't tweet after 3:00 a.m." The controversial billionaire understands his tendency for unrestrained remarks, which sometimes lead to disputes. The history of Musk's verbal attacks is much longer, but here are the billionaires he "fought" with in 2024.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta ($181 billion)

This year, Elon Musk returned to the idea of a showdown between him and Zuckerberg. In fact, last year, both sides backed out of it for different reasons.

"If only Zuckerberg was that cool (sigh). I offered to fight him anywhere, anytime, by any rules, but all I hear is crickets," Musk wrote on May 15.

Mark Zuckerberg did not comment on this incident.

Sam Altman, head of OpenAI ($2 billion)

Altman co-founded OpenAI with Musk in 2015. However, disagreements over the direction OpenAI should take drove a wedge between them. In February, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman, accusing them of violating the project's non-profit mission due to a partnership with Microsoft. But then he withdrew the lawsuit, promising to talk about it later.

Altman remained polite when publicly responding to Musk's accusations. In March, the head of OpenAI told Lex Fridman in a podcast that he found Musk's lawsuit discouraging and expected Musk to have "more sympathy" for OpenAI's ambitions.

"Not long ago, Elon was insanely talking about launching rockets when people were laughing at the idea, so I think he would have more sympathy for that," Altman told Fridman.

Mark Cuban, star of the reality business show "Shark Tank" ($7.46 billion)

Cuban argued with Musk on many topics, starting from different views on corporate diversity, fairness, and inclusivity to different opinions about President Biden.

"Mark Cuban is desperately trying to demonstrate his 'virtue,' but his hypocrisy convinces no one," Musk wrote in January.

Once, Musk called Cuban a "racist" in a post X for supporting the corporate DEI initiative with quotas for various social groups. He later deleted the post.

"If Biden were a carnivorous zombie with only 5 seconds to live, where after re-election Earth would plunge into a 1000-year darkness, I would still vote for him," Mark Cuban," Musk wrote.

Mackenzie Scott, ex-wife of Jeff Bezos ($38.6 billion)

In March, Musk criticized Mackenzie Scott for her charity.

"Super-rich ex-wives who hate their ex-husbands" should be added to the list of "Reasons for the downfall of Western civilization," Musk wrote on March 6. He later deleted the post.

Melinda Gates, ex-wife of Bill Gates ($13.3 billion)

Musk had a similar attitude towards Melinda Gates after she supported Biden in the upcoming presidential elections.

"Perhaps this is the collapse of Western civilization," Musk wrote on June 20.

Vinod Khosla, OpenAI investor ($7.7 billion)

Unlike other representatives on this list, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla was the first to latch onto Musk.

"As they say, if you can't innovate, sue, and that's what we have here. Old Elon would have built with us to achieve the same goal," Khosla said after Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI.

But Khosla didn't stop there. A few days later, he gave Musk, who often posts and reposts memes, a taste of his own medicine and mocked xAI.

Elon Musk himself gives himself a recipe for what to do, but apparently, he doesn't follow it:

"If you're going to tweet something that could be controversial, save it as a draft, then look at it the next day and decide if you still want to tweet it."

Source: Business Insider