Musk and Zuckerberg have both taken jabs at each other online. — NurPhoto via Getty Images/The New York Times
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s patriotic Fourth of July video Thursday drew praise from fans of his unexpectedly fruitful rebrand, but it fell flat with his archrival: billionaire Elon Musk.
The video shows long-haired Zuckerberg sporting an elegant tuxedo and sipping a beer while flaunting an American flag on his beloved hydrofoil, a board that uses a wing below the water to keep afloat. The video, set to Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA with the caption “Happy birthday, America!”, quickly went viral, garnering more than 700,000 likes and millions of views.
The video is part of a rebrand that has transformed Zuck from computer nerd to billionaire bad boy. In 2020, the Meta CEO was photographed on a board similar to the one in the Thursday video and was lambasted for his blue hoodie, shorts, and sunscreen-slathered face.
But the new and improved Zuck, who wears designer clothes and wins MMA bouts, managed to pull off the look this year, drawing virtual applause from fans for his “based” show of patriotism.
Still, at least one influential voice bashed Zuckerberg for the video: his nemesis, Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
“May he continue to have fun on his yachts. I prefer to work,” Musk said in a post on X.
Musk supporter Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports also jumped in, saying on X that “Zuck will always be uncool.”
Musk often ruffles feathers with his fellow billionaires, but he and Zuck have escalated their feud as of late. Their conflict, which possibly started over a blown-up satellite, came to a head last year when Musk challenged Zuck to a “cage match,” which the Meta CEO later cancelled because he said Musk wouldn’t confirm a date. A month later, Zuckerberg launched Threads, a direct competitor to Musk’s X.
Musk still hasn’t forgotten about the cancelled cage match and brought it up again in a post on the day after Zuckerberg’s 40th birthday.
"If only Zuckerberg were as tough (sigh). I've offered to fight him any place, any time, any rules, but all I hear is crickets," Musk posted on X on May 15.
In April, the two finally fought it out but in a battle of riches, with Zuckerberg passing the Tesla CEO to become the third-richest person in the world. But since then, Tesla’s stock has rallied and investors have approved Musk’s record-breaking US$45bil (RM211.33bil) pay package, helping him once again reclaim the title of world’s richest man, leaving Zuck in the dust. Musk has a net worth of US$252bil (RM1.18 trillion) compared to Zuck’s US$181bil (RM850.03bil), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. – Fortune.com/The New York Times
