Telegram CEO gives 'one sentence' personality assessment of his 'biggest rivals' Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman

Telegram

CEO Pavel Durov recently gave intriguing ‘one-sentence’ personality assessments for his tech rivals including Tesla CEO Elon Musk,

Meta

CEO Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Speaking to a French publication Le Point, Durov offered a sharp assessments for the three tech CEOs.

What Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said about Tesla Elon Musk

On Elon Musk, Durov said: “Elon can be very emotional, while I try to think deeply before acting.” He acknowledged their contrasting leadership styles, noting that Musk’s impulsiveness can be both a strength and a liability.

What Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said about Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg

On Mark Zuckerberg, Durov remarked: “Mark adapts well and quickly follows trends, but he seems to lack fundamental values that he would remain faithful to, regardless of changes in the political climate or tech industry trends.”What

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

On Sam Altman, Durov offered a mix of praise and skepticism: “Sam has excellent social skills, which allowed him to forge alliances around ChatGPT—but some wonder if his technical expertise is still sufficient, now that his co-founder Ilya [Sutskever] and many other scientists have left OpenAI.”

The remarks come amid rising tensions and shifting alliances in the AI and messaging space. Telegram recently struck a major deal with Musk’s

xAI

to distribute the Grok chatbot, while Durov has long criticized Meta’s WhatsApp as a “watered-down imitation” of Telegram.