Billionaire Brawl: Musk and Zuckerberg's Cage Fight Showdown Dims

• Financial

Silicon Valley giants, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, recently grabbed headlines with talks of a sensational cage fight. It appears, however, that this eagerly anticipated showdown might just fizzle out before it even begins.

Zuckerberg, the Meta chief executive, expressed frustration over Musk’s apparent lack of commitment to the event. "Elon won’t confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead," Zuckerberg vented on the social platform, Threads, this past Sunday.

He added pointedly, “If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me. Otherwise, time to move on. I’m going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously”.

The 39-year-old Zuckerberg had earmarked August 26 as the date for their duel, but Musk, 52, remained non-committal.

Charity, Weights, and Digital Warfare

To heighten the suspense, Musk announced last week that the potential face-off would be broadcasted live on X – the platform formerly recognized as Twitter and now owned by him.

"Lifting weights throughout the day, preparing for the fight," Musk claimed, adding a noble twist by noting that all proceeds would be channeled to charity for veterans. Behind the machismo and bravado, there lies a backdrop of fierce business competition.

This proposed battle of brawn came shortly after Meta unveiled Threads in June – a move perceived as a direct challenge to Twitter. The stakes heightened considerably. Zuckerberg didn’t waste any time flaunting the early success of Threads.

By July 10, merely a few days post-launch, he boasted of a staggering 100 million sign-ups, catapulting the app into the annals of history as one of the fastest-growing ever. However, the initial euphoria seemed short-lived.

Recent industry metrics painted a less rosy picture, indicating that Threads was hemorrhaging users, with user engagement plummeting to unprecedented lows.