Inside Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg’s nearly decade-long feud

While in Silicon Valley, rivalries are often common, few have been as dramatic, public, and enduring as the clash between the Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The tension between the two tech titans has lasted for the better part of a decade and dates back to 2016, when a SpaceX rocket explosion destroyed a Facebook satellite.

Here’s a detailed timeline of how the Musk-Zuckerberg feud escalated into one of Silicon Valley’s most notorious conflicts.

SpaceX rocket explosion destroyed Facebook satellite (2016)

The feud between the tech billionaires dates back to September 2016, when Musk’s SpaceX was testing its Falcon 9 rocket at Cape Canaveral.

The rocket exploded, destroying Facebook’s $200 million AMOS-6 satellite. The satellite was crucial to Zuckerberg’s Internet.org project, meant to expand connectivity in developing nations.

Zuckerberg, who happened to be in Africa at the time, posted a frustrated message on Facebook:

“I’m deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX’s launch failure destroyed our satellite that would have provided connectivity to so many entrepreneurs and everyone else across the continent.”

However, Musk later admitted fault, jokingly calling himself “an idiot,” but by then the damage was done.

The AI clash (2017)

By 2017, the rivalry shifted from space to artificial intelligence (AI). Zuckerberg, being an AI optimist, told viewers during a Facebook Live session that Musk’s warnings about AI “doomsday scenarios” were “pretty irresponsible.”

Musk fired back on Twitter (now X), bluntly stating: “I’ve talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited.”

The remark highlighted their opposing visions of AI, as Zuckerberg’s belief in its potential and Musk’s insistence on regulation and caution.

The famous “delete Facebook” hashtag in 2018

In 2018, the Cambridge Analytica scandal shook Facebook. When WhatsApp cofounder Brian Acton tweeted, “It is time. #deletefacebook,” Musk joined in.

“What's Facebook?” he quipped, before deleting the official Facebook pages for both Tesla and SpaceX.

Musk dismissed it as not political, but simply because Facebook “gave him the willies.”

Musk trolls Facebook again (2020–2021)

Musk’s criticism of Facebook intensified in 2020, when he urged followers to delete the app after Sacha Baron Cohen called for stricter regulation.

Later, in January 2021, after the US Capitol riots, Musk tweeted a meme linking the chaos to Facebook’s origins, from “a website to rate women on campus” to “domino effect: insurrection.”

He later doubled down, suggesting people switch to Signal, a rival encrypted app, instead of using WhatsApp.

Musk calls Meta a monarchy (2022)

During a TED conference interview in April 2022, Musk took another swipe.

When asked about his potential control of Twitter, Musk compared it to Zuckerberg’s dominance over Meta:

“You’ve got Mark Zuckerberg owning Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp … with a share ownership structure that will have Mark Zuckerberg the 14th still controlling those entities.”

It was both a joke and a sharp critique of Zuckerberg’s grip on his empire.

The cage match challenge (2023)

Things took a bizarre turn in June 2023 when Musk challenged Zuckerberg to a cage match. 

The Meta CEO, a jiu-jitsu enthusiast, even responded with “send me location,” fueling viral speculation about whether the billionaires would actually fight.

Zuckerberg’s 40th birthday and Musk’s challenge (2024)

In May 2024, the day after Zuckerberg’s 40th birthday, Musk revived the challenge, posting:

“I’ve offered to fight him any place, any time, any rules, but all I hear is crickets.”

it is worth noting that Musk's post was in response to a satirical news story about a face-off between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Meta-owned Threads vs X

Shortly after Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, Meta-owned Instagram introduced the Threads platform in July 2023 as a competitor to X.

While Instagram is primarily a visual platform, Threads was launched to fill the need for a text-focused space where users could share their ideas and thoughts without needing accompanying photos or videos.

Currently, Threads has over 400 million monthly active users (MAUs) as of August 2025.