Inside Elon Musk’s burn book — the non-exhaustive list of billionaires he’s fought with in 2024

Cage match, anyone?

In June 2023, Musk challenged Mark Zuckerberg to a fight following reports that said Meta was building a rival to X.

"I'm up for a cage match if he is lol," Musk said in an X post on June 20, 2023.

"Send Me Location," Zuckerberg responded via an Instagram story the next day.

Zuckerberg launched his text-based social media platform, Threads, a month later. The fight with Musk didn't see as much progress, with both parties publicly cooling on the idea in one way or another.

Musk appeared to backtrack on the fight, saying in August that he would need to undergo "minor surgery" for some older injuries. This was after he'd claimed that the fight would be live-streamed and would take place at an "epic location" in ancient Rome.

Zuckerberg brushed aside Musk's proposed cage match last year, but Musk hasn't forgotten about the fight. In fact, he's brought it into 2024.

"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 said in an X post on May 15, a day after Zuckerberg celebrated his 40th birthday.

Representatives for Zuckerberg didn't respond to a request for comment from BI for this story.

Sam Altman isn't your typical Musk rival. Altman cofounded OpenAI with Musk in 2015 and interviewed Musk a year later when he was still the president of Y Combinator.

But differences in thought over how OpenAI should be run have driven a wedge between the men.

In February, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman, accusing the company of violating its nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft. Musk withdrew his lawsuit against Altman in June, just a day before a judge was set to consider OpenAI's request to dismiss it.

"More on this later," Musk said of the lawsuit's withdrawal on June 12.

Musk has been a vocal critic of Altman's leadership of OpenAI after the company found success with its AI chatbot ChatGPT.

"OpenAI was created as an open source (which is why I named it 'Open' AI), non-profit company to serve as a counterweight to Google, but now it has become a closed source, maximum-profit company effectively controlled by Microsoft," Musk wrote on X in February 2023.

Altman has remained civil when publicly responding to Musk's barbs.

In March, the OpenAI chief told podcaster Lex Fridman that he found Musk's lawsuit bewildering and expected Musk to have "more empathy" for OpenAI's ambitions.

"It wasn't that long ago Elon was crazily talking about launching rockets when people were laughing at that thought, so I think he'd have more empathy for this," Altman told Fridman.

Representatives for Altman didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.

Billionaire Mark Cuban is no stranger when it comes to getting caught in Musk's crosshairs.

Cuban has feuded with Musk on multiple topics, ranging from their differing views on corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion to their opinions on President Joe Biden.

"Mark Cuban is desperately trying to signal his 'virtue', but his hypocrisy convinces no one," Musk said on X in January after Cuban voiced his support for corporate DEI initiatives.

At one point, Musk called Cuban a "racist" in an X post for backing DEI. He later deleted the post.

In March, Musk threw a jibe at Cuban after the "Shark Tank" star said he'd vote for Biden even if the president "was being given last rites."

"'If Biden were a flesh-eating zombie with 5 seconds to live where, upon being re-elected, Earth would plunge into a 1000 years of darkness, I would still vote for him.' — Mark Cuban," Musk wrote in an X post.

Cuban, however, doesn't seem too bothered by Musk's jabs.

"I have fun sparring with Elon. He likes to troll and so do I," Cuban told BI. "I have no issues with him."

Musk has also gone after the former spouses of billionaires this year.

In March, Musk slammed Jeff Bezos' ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, for her charitable giving.

"'Super rich ex-wives who hate their former spouse' should filed be listed among 'Reasons that Western Civilization died,'" Musk wrote in an X post on March 6. He later deleted the post.

Scott's philanthropy has been a long-running bugbear for Musk, who claimed in May 2022 that his companies were being sidelined by the Democratic Party partly because Scott had donated to "PACs posing as charities."

Scott was married to Bezos for 25 years. The pair finalized their divorce in 2019. As part of the settlement terms, Scott received $38 billion worth of Amazon shares.

Scott did not publicly respond to Musk's post in March, though she did ramp up her donations in the wake of his remarks.

On March 19, Scott announced she would donate $640 million to 361 organizations. That sum was more than double the $250 million she had initially pledged to give away last year.

Representatives for Scott didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.

In June, Musk ripped into Melinda French Gates after she gave her first presidential endorsement to Joe Biden.

"Might be the downfall of western civilization," Musk said in an X post on June 20.

Musk isn't exactly a fan of French Gates' ex-husband, Bill Gates, either. The Tesla CEO was furious when he learned that Gates had shorted Tesla's stock, as detailed in Walter Isaacson's biography of Musk.

"How can someone say they are passionate about fighting climate change and then do something that reduced the overall investment in the company doing the most? It's pure hypocrisy," Musk told Isaacson.

Shortly after he'd turned down a philanthropic opportunity with Gates, Musk took to X to share a meme that compared the Microsoft founder to the pregnant man emoji.

"In case you need to lose a boner fast," Musk said on April 22, 2023.

Representatives for Gates and French Gates didn't respond to requests for comment from BI.

Unlike most of the billionaires on this list, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla fired salvos at Musk first.

"With @elonmusk, feels like a bit of sour grapes in suing @OpenAI, not getting in early enough, not staying committed and now a rival effort," Khosla, an OpenAI investor, said on X in March, while referencing Musk's AI startup xAI.

"Like they say if you can't innovate, litigate and that's what we have here. Elon of old would be building with us to hit the same goal," Khosla added.

"Vinod doesn't know what he is talking about here," Musk replied.

But Khosla wasn't done. Days later, he gave Musk — a frequent poster and reposter of memes — a taste of his own medicine when he posted a meme ridiculing xAI.

Representatives for Khosla didn't respond to a request for comment from BI.