It was an eventful 2023 for Elon Musk, who regained the title of the world's richest person and saw his Tesla Inc TSLA complete its first deliveries of the highly anticipated Cybertruck pickup truck.
The year also saw plenty of controversy around Musk with battles waged against several of the world's biggest leaders and politicians.
What Happened: Among the battles waged by Musk in 2023 included taking on Meta Platforms Inc META CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Walt Disney Co DIS CEO Bob Iger.
A report from Business Insider highlighted the Musk’s battles, which also included taking on President Joe Biden and members of Congress.
While Musk is happy to take on other billionaires, company leaders and politicians, he doesn't often receive a fight back from the involved parties, according to the report.
The report uses the DealBook Summit to illustrate the difference between Musk and others.
DealBook host Andrew Ross Sorkin asked JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon what he thought of Musk and despite not always getting along, the bank CEO was willing to offer up his praise.
"He's obviously a brilliant human being and making unbelievable contributions to mankind. But he, you know, comes with pluses and minuses," Dimon said at the event.
Iger also praised Musk at the event, despite his comments coming after Disney had pulled advertising from social media platform Twitter, now known as X, which is owned by Musk.
"I have a lot of respect for Elon and what he's accomplished," Iger said.
Musk went on to say “Go f*** yourself” to anyone pulling advertising, including Iger at the same event.
Perhaps one of Musk's biggest rivals, Amazon.com founder and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos had praise for Musk during an episode on the Lex Fridman podcast.
"He must be a very capable leader. There's no way you could have Tesla and SpaceX without being a capable leader. It's impossible," Bezos said.
Related Link: 52 Facts And Figures About Tesla, SpaceX CEO On His 52nd Birthday
Why It's Important: While Musk has openly criticized other CEOs and politicians, those targeted have failed to fight back in most cases.
Crisis management expert Eric Dezenhall of Dezenhall Resources told Business Insider this could be due to an intimidation factor.
"He has a platform. Musk has a similar power to call somebody out. Nobody wants to be put in that position to be called out," Dezenhall said.
Dezenhall compared Musk to former President Donald Trump in this regard and the fact that no one wants to be called out or receive a nickname from the world's richest person.
"When you have the combo of bottomless wealth and the life experience, you will get away with things — that's a very different way to go through life."
Musk owns Twitter and is also the most followed person on the platform, giving him a large audience reach.
While some Tesla shareholders were critical of Musk being so outspoken, the fact that Iger and Dimon run public companies might be the reason why they sidestep the potential to criticize Musk and engage their companies in disagreements.
"Iger can't be throwing F-bombs back. CEOs of a publicly traded company are like the town mayor — they can't offend anyone."
Photo: Shutterstock
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