Business | Schumpeter

Musk v Zuckerberg: who’s winning?

One burned billions, the other has earned them

illustration featuring two cage fighters, one wearing a meta headset and kicking the other fighter, who explodes like a digital computer game
Illustration: Brett Ryder

The playground rivalry between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk dates back years—and in who-is-cooler-than-whom terms, Mr Musk usually wins easily. As an innovator, Mr Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook and boss of Meta, a social-media giant, has often been dismissed as a geeky dilettante in a hoodie. He has never received the Promethean kudos Mr Musk has for turning Tesla into a stallion of electric vehicles (EVs) and SpaceX into a rocket sensation. Mr Zuckerberg is notorious for his motto “move fast and break things”, which may have helped Facebook conquer the world but gave licence to critics to cast it as a social menace. Mr Musk is revered as a rule-breaker, plays up his bad-boy image and mostly gets away with it.

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This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Musk v Zuck, round two ”

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