Tech titans Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are in a fierce business rivalry that has spilt over into a playground spat, with the two men offering to fight each other in a cage.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
Meta has officially debuted its Twitter-like messaging app Threads, which the company is pitching as Instagram’s “text-based conversation app.”
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO and co-founder, announced the debut of Threads on Wednesday, marking the official release of the social networking giant’s new text-focused messaging app. Threads represents Meta’s attempt to capture the wave of users who have left Twitter amid the often unpredictable ownership of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
The Threads app is now available to download for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play online store in over 100 countries, Meta said in a blog post. Threads shares Twitter’s visual aesthetic as a text-based social messaging app in which users can post short messages that others can like, share, and comment upon, according to screenshots of Threads that are available on Apple’s App Store.
People will be able to follow the same Threads accounts that they follow on Instagram and reply to other public posts in a way akin to how people use Twitter.
The official release comes after Instagram released on Monday a pre-order for Threads on the Apple App Store, which said that at the time that the app was expected to debut on July 6. Many Instagram users were also recently able to obtain invitations to access Threads from within their Instagram accounts.
Although Threads is linked to Instagram, with users able to use their existing Instagram usernames, the messaging service is a separate app that people will need to download.
“Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow,” Instagram said in a description of Threads on the Apple App Store. “Whatever it is you’re interested in, you can follow and connect directly with your favorite creators and others who love the same things — or build a loyal following of your own to share your ideas, opinions and creativity with the world.”
Meta said in the blog post that people’s individual feeds on the new messaging app will include “threads” that were posted by other users that they follow, in addition to recommended content shared from creators who users may not know.
People will be able to publish Threads posts that are up to 500 characters long, and while the app is geared toward text, people will also be able so share links, photos and videos that can be as long as 5 minutes. Instagram users will also be able to share their Threads posts via the app’s story feature in addition to “any other platform you choose,” the blog post said.
Meta said that it developed Threads “with tools to enable positive, productive conversations,” and people will be able to manage who is mentioning or is replying to them within the app.
“Like on Instagram, you can add hidden words to filter out replies to your threads that contain specific words,” the blog post said. “You can unfollow, block, restrict or report a profile on Threads by tapping the three-dot menu, and any accounts you’ve blocked on Instagram will automatically be blocked on Threads.”
Racing into the gap as Twitter implodes
The release of Threads comes as Twitter has suffered a wave of mishaps under the ownership of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, leaving the popular social messaging app vulnerable to competing apps.
Most recently, Musk said that Twitter users will only be able to see a certain number of Tweets per day in an attempt to deal with “extreme levels of data scraping” and “system manipulation” on the messaging service.
Numerous Twitter users publicly complained about Musk imposing a temporary so-called “rate limit” on Twitter, saying that the Tweet limits make the app a less engaging experience.
BlueSky, a rival social messaging app that is backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, said that it recorded “record-high traffic” after Musk announced the Twitter rate limit, and it temporarily paused sign-ups to deal with the influx of new users, who must currently be invited to use the app.
Like BlueSky, Threads will use decentralized technology that theoretically lets users control and manage their data across other apps that incorporate the same underlying software.
Whereas BlueSky is built on the decentralized networking technology dubbed the AT Protocol, Threads will eventually incorporate another decentralized technology called ActivityPub, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a Threads post on Wednesday that was briefly available to the public. The ActivityPub software also powers another Twitter-like messaging app called Mastadon, which has also experienced an influx of new users seeking an alternative to Twitter.
Mosseri said that his team wasn’t able to include support for ActivityPub in time for Threads’ official release because of “a number of complications that come along with a decentralized network.” But he reiterated that support is coming.
“If you’re wondering why this matters, here’s a reason: you may one day end up leaving Threads, or, hopefully not, end up de-platformed,” Mosseri said. “If that ever happens, you should be able to take your audience with you to another server. Being open can enable that.”
Meta added in its blog post that ActivityPub will enable people without Threads accounts to view Threads and interact with Threads users who have public profiles via other social apps that incorporate the same decentralized technology.
“If you have a public profile on Threads, this means your posts would be accessible from other apps, allowing you to reach new people with no added effort,” Meta said in the blog post. “If you have a private profile, you’d be able to approve users on Threads who want to follow you and interact with your content, similar to your experience on Instagram.”
Meta said that Threads is the company’s first app “envisioned to be compatible with an open social networking protocol,” which it believes could usher “in a new era of diverse and interconnected networks.”
In 2019, Meta, then known as Facebook, debuted a messaging app for Instagram users that was also called Threads. Unlike the current iteration of Threads that caters to text-based messages, the previous Threads app was instead centered around people sending short video and photo messages to their friends like they were using Snapchat.
Meta eventually shuttered Threads in 2021, and redirected people to use Instagram to see all their previous Threads messages.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks while World leaders listen during a summit of European and Middle Eastern leaders on Gaza on October 13, 2025 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
This might not be Christmas, but the war in the Middle East is over — at least according to U.S. President Donald Trump.
On Monday, Trump declared at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, that the “long and painful nightmare” was finally over for both the Israelis and Palestinians. More straightforwardly, Trump gave an unequivocal “yes” when asked by reporters if the war in the Middle East has ended, Reuters reported.
Broadcom, meanwhile, surged almost 10% after it jointly announced a partnership with — who else? — OpenAI to build and deploy custom chips. But where this puts Nvidia, OpenAI’s other near and dear one, and on whose chips the ChatGPT maker relies, remains a question.
Though Christmas has yet to arrive, OpenAI is starting to look like the tech sector’s Santa Claus.
— CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.
What you need to know today
War in the Middle East is over, Trump says. At Israel’s parliament, Trump gave a speech in which he said that the “long and painful nightmare” for both the Israelis and Palestinians was over. He also urged, at a separate event, for leaders to put “old feuds” behind.
Broadcom joins the OpenAI party. The two companies announced Monday that they’re planning to develop and deploy OpenAI-designed chips, amounting to 10 gigawatts, starting late next year. Shares of Broadcom popped almost 10% on the news.
JPMorgan says it will invest $10 billion in critical industries. The four areas of focus — which the bank considers crucial to U.S. security — are: defense and aerospace, “frontier” technologies such as AI, energy technology and supply chain and advanced manufacturing.
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And finally…
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with Argentina’s President Javier Milei during the 80th United Nations General Assembly, in New York City, New York, U.S., Sept. 23, 2025.
In a move that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Thursday on social media site X, the U.S. is providing a $20 billion currency swap line with Argentina’s central bank — essentially exchanging stable U.S. dollars with volatile pesos.
The move comes amid liquidity concerns in Argentina that threatened stability for the country as it faces key midterm elections. There are equal parts economic and political stakes with the venture, which marks the first U.S. intervention of this nature since rescuing Mexico in 1995.
A woman cleans the store window of the Amazon house after activists sprayed paint on its logo during a protest on the opening day of the 55th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 20, 2025.
Yves Herman | Reuters
Amazon fired a Palestinian engineer who was suspended last month after he protested the company’s work with the Israeli government.
Ahmed Shahrour, who worked as a software engineer in Amazon’s Whole Foods business in Seattle, received an email on Monday informing him of his termination. When he was suspended in September, Amazon said the decision was the result of messages Shahrour posted on Slack criticizing the company’s ties to Israel.
Amazon said its investigation found Shahrour had violated the company’s standards of conduct, written communication policy and acceptable use policy, alleging that he “misused company resources, including by posting numerous non-work-related messages pertaining to the Israel-Palestine conflict.”
“In the next 24hrs you will receive an email with detailed information about your termination, including information about your benefits and final pay,” an Amazon human resources employee wrote in a message to Shahrour that was obtained by CNBC. “We appreciate the contributions you’ve made during your time with Amazon and wish you the best in your future endeavors.”
An employee group associated with Shahrour put out an afternoon press release saying that he was fired after a five-week suspension “for protesting Amazon’s $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government and military, known as Project Nimbus, which he states constitutes collaboration in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
Shahrour had urged the company to drop the contract that involves Amazon providing the Israeli government with artificial intelligence tools, data centers and other infrastructure. He also protested and handed out flyers at Amazon’s downtown Seattle headquarters.
In a statement to CNBC, Shahrour said his firing is “a blatant act of retaliation designed to silence dissent from Palestinian voices within Amazon and shield Amazon’s collaboration in the genocide from internal scrutiny.”
Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser told CNBC in a statement that the company doesn’t tolerate “discrimination, harassment or threatening behavior or language of any kind in our workplace.”
“When any conduct of that nature is reported, we investigate it and take appropriate action based on our findings,” Glasser said.
Shahrour’s termination comes on the same day that Palestinian militant group Hamas released the first seven surviving Israeli hostages, marking the first stage of a ceasefire deal brokered with the help of U.S. President Donald Trump. As part of the agreement, Israel was also scheduled to free nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees and prisoners later in the day.
The war started just over two years ago, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing roughly 1,200 people and taking hundreds of hostages. Israel followed with a sustained assault that killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, including thousands of civilians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Across the tech industry, workers have become more outspoken in their criticism of business dealings with the Israeli military.
On Thursday, a Microsoft engineer resigned after 13 years at the software giant, claiming the company continues to sell cloud services to the Israeli military and that executives won’t discuss the war in Gaza. Scott Sutfin-Glowski, a principal software engineer, informed colleagues in a letter that, “I can no longer accept enabling what may be the worst atrocities of our time.”
In the letter, he referred to a February Associated Press article that said Israel’s military had at least 635 Microsoft subscriptions, and he claimed the vast majority of them remain active.
Microsoft fired two employees in August who participated in a protest inside the company’s headquarters. In April 2024, Google terminated 28 employees after a series of protests against labor conditions and its involvement in Project Nimbus.
Amazon hasn’t acknowledged the Nimbus contract beyond stating that it provides technology to customers “wherever they are located.” Google has previously said it provides generally available cloud computing services to the Israeli government that aren’t “directed at highly sensitive, classified or military workloads.” Microsoft said in August that most of its work with Israel Defense Forces involves cybersecurity for the country, and that the company intends to provide technology in an ethical way.
Broadcom CEO Hock Tan told CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday that artificial intelligence could become a larger part of global GDP as the technology spreads across industries.
Tan said the current global GDP sits around $110 trillion, with 30% of that figure “valued from industries related to knowledge-based, technology-intensive.”
“And you put in generative AI, you create intelligence in a lot of other aspects of society,” Tan continued. “That 30% say will grow to 40% of all GDP. That’s $10 trillion a year.”
If AI grows and becomes responsible for a larger piece of global GDP as Tan predicts, it would be a boon to the nascent tech sector and all the industries it relies on. Broadcom makes chips and networking equipment and has been a huge beneficiary of the AI boom as hyperscalers buy up its products. The stock is currently up 53.86%.
Broadcom and OpenAI announced their official partnership on Monday, saying they would jointly build and deploy 10 gigawatts of custom artificial intelligence accelerators. The move is part of a broader effort to scale AI across the industry. Broadcom shares surged in response to the news, up 9.88% by market close.
Broadcom and OpenAI’s deal is the latest in a slew of pricey partnerships among key Big Tech players related to AI.
Tan said OpenAI is “one of those few players in the forefront of creating foundation models,” and noted that even as a private company, the ChatGPT maker is worth about $500 billion. According to Tan, Broadcom’s “hard-nosed” approach to business doesn’t keep the company from looking several years in the future “at this phenomenon, this wave called generative AI.”
Broadcom is tight-lipped about its customers, but said earlier this year it was developing new AI chips with three large cloud customers. Management announced last month it had secured $10 billion in chip orders from a fourth unnamed client.
Tan told Cramer that Broadcom is working closely with “about seven players,” four of which he defined as “real customers,” or ones “who have given us production purchase orders at scale.”
“We feel very good about it,” Tan said of Broadcom’s partnerships. “Because each of these guys need a lot of compute capacity for them to basically play in this game and eventually win this game of creating the best foundation model in the world.”
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Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust owns shares of Broadcom.