The Real Cage Match: The New Leadership in the Tech Industry

In the summer of 2023, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, proposed a Vegas cage match with Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the most important social media giant. Would the two tech titans settle their leadership in a live streamed fight? Definitely not.

For years, both have been successful entrepreneurs. The electric car market would be unthinkable without Tesla and social media itself can be defined easily by simply talking about apps like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. What are their similarities and their backgrounds? How do they manage their companies? Are they really competitors? All these facts are gaining more and more importance in stock markets all over the world.

Musk, a 52-year-old South African man, built his empire by creating and investing in technology companies such as PayPal, SpaceX, Tesla Motors, Neuralink and more recently, Twitter (now X). Defined as a complex person, he is famous for his disruptive approach to problems, working without breaks or holidays and frequently at late hours.

On the other hand, Zuckerberg is a 39-year-old classical Silicon Valley story of success. Co-founder of formerly Facebook with his Harvard roommates, he has been ranked as a billionaire for the past 15 years. Like Musk, he is a controversial public figure but he tries to be seen as the guy next door, with a nice family, time for training and with an eight-hour sleeping routine. 

With high expectations for the future of cyberspace, the entire industry is focusing on the next areas to invest in: the metaverse and artificial intelligence. Even one of the world’s most powerful voices, Bill Gates, has openly said that we are living a great moment. The way both businessmen interact, plan, create and lead their teams will be crucial for the next generation.

What is their leadership style? What can we learn from them? Would you lend them your money?

Primarily, both are transformational. It is a common factor in the tech industry to forecast the need to change the status quo, to be disruptive and to demonstrate  visionary thinking. Perhaps, both challenged – at a young age – the way we do business. But now the pressure of constantly introducing new products and services is enormous for them. They represented the  young promise in an unregulated market years ago, but today, the public, media and lawmakers are more conscious about their decisions. Their name is now a brand. Their motto, slogan and their small feats in front of a computer mean extraordinary losses or gains worldwide.

Elon Musk knows that, and, with the purchase of Twitter, his decision interrupted the easy path for Zuckerberg. The CEO of Tesla was now dabbling in an uncertain market for him, and the results were full of ups and downs in his first year. For the first time, more than the exponential growth of TikTok during the pandemic, Zuckerberg was fighting a real competitor in his sector. Proof of this is the launch of Threads in 2023. Undoubtedly, the hands-on approach of both is natural in their character.

Zuckerberg has steered his company through various stages of evolution. He has purchased WhatsApp and Instagram among other apps that eventually could have been rivals for Facebook. He also has bet on a new era for cyberspace: the popularization of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in a fresh, innovative and modern world. He is so excited about this project that he even changed the name of his business.

Despite their commitment to being at the forefront of AI development and other technology advances, their vision and interests are totally different. Musk through Neuralink is exploring the potential to merge the human brain with AI, while Zuckerberg is searching for improvements in content moderation and,  especially, in enhancing users’ experiences through virtuality. Elon sees a world surrounded by science and Mark sees a planet without geographical boundaries. As a result, their next fight will not be only over research and investment goals or finding talented youngsters but also about paid-AI-products or open-code apps.  

Will we still be discussing them in the immediate future about them? Are they going to continue changing the technology landscape? Definitely, yes. 

Musk or Zuckerberg: Which is your favorite leader?