'Drama magnet' How Elon Musk kept himself in the world's headlines in 2023

Elon Musk’s favourite movie quote, according to his biographer, is Gladiator’s Are you not entertained?”

- Dan Milmo

Some members of Musk’s considerable global audience were also horrified as controversial statements and management decisions grabbed the headlines yet again this year.

Musk’s brother, Kimbal, told Walter Isaacson, the author of an Elon Musk biography published in September, his sibling was a drama magnet”. He added: That’s his compulsion, the theme of his life.”

That impulse was on full display in 2023. Here are a few of the most notable stories involving the world’s richest man this year.

Challenging Mark Zuckerberg to a cage fight

At one point in 2023 Musk appeared to be taking his love of Gladiator too far after he challenged the Facebook founder to a fight.

Responding to reports that Zuckerberg intended to launch a Twitter-like platform, Musk tweeted: "I'm up for a cage match if he is lol." Zuckerberg replied on Instagram: "Send Me Location."

That Zuckerberg, a cage fighting adherent, seemed to mean business at least gave the story some momentum no matter its improbability. However, Musk brought up a shoulder problem that might need surgery as, in typical fashion, he sowed doubt about just how serious he was being.

Zuckerberg decided his fellow billionaire was not being sincere, posting on Threads in August: "I think we can all agree Elon isn't serious and it's time to move on."

Rebranding Twitter

When he bought Twitter in October 2022, Musk tweeted "the bird is freed". In July, he got rid of it completely as he announced the platform would be rebranded as X, banishing the distinctive bird logo.

The rebranding was part of Musk's vision of transforming the micro-blogging service into an "everything app" modelled on WeChat, the Chinese platform that allows users to perform functions from ordering a taxi to paying bills.