Mark Zuckerberg said Twitter, now X, is less likely to maximize its potential now with Elon Musk behind the wheel

• Meta released Threads in July that would compete with Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter.
• Mark Zuckerberg and Musk have also sparred with each other online, talking about a cage match.

Mark Zuckerberg doesn't appear to have too much faith in Elon Musk's handling of Twitter.

In an hour-long interview with The Verge's Alex Heath, the Meta CEO said that Twitter — now X — isn't on a path to reach its full potential with the idiosyncratic, multi-hyphenate tech billionaire behind the wheel.

Zuckerberg said he welcomed the diversity of entrepreneurs and the directions they want to take their respective products, and that, when Musk took over, he saw a potential for change at a company he felt was already struggling.

"But I guess Twitter was sort of plodding along for a while before Elon came, and I think the rate of change in the product was pretty slow. So it just didn't seem like they were on the trajectory that would maximize their potential," he told The Verge. "With Elon coming in, I think there was certainly an opportunity to change things up and he has."

Since Musk took over, Twitter has laid off thousands of employees, scrapped the old verification process for a paid blue checkmark, changed the leadership, re-worked Community Notes in lieu of a company moderation team, and, of course, changed the name of Twitter to X in hopes of turning the platform into an "everything app," among other changes.

Zuckerberg recognized that Musk was a "change agent," but he added that he was uncertain of where the CEO was trying to go with the company and expressed doubt that X would ever reach its maximum potential in part because Musk can be a divisive figure.

"I think it's still not clear exactly what trajectory it's on," Zuckerberg said in the interview. "But I do think he's been pretty polarizing, so I think that the chance that it sort of reaches the full potential on the trajectory that it's on is… I don't know. I guess I'm probably less optimistic or just think there's less of a chance now than there was before."

In July, Meta launched its own text-based platform Threads, that would compete with X.

Zuckerberg told The Verge that the reasoning behind the app was to create an alternative platform that was less "negative and critical" than X.

The two CEOs have also sparred with each other online, talking about a potential "cage match" and at one point taunting each other through their apps.

Zuckerberg said in the interview that the fight is unlikely to happen and that he'd rather challenge someone who is more serious about the sport.