In recent years, Mr. White and Mr. Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, have bonded over their passion for professional fighting, including mixed martial arts, with which Mr. Zuckerberg launched in 2022.
“Dana is the Chairman and CEO of the UFC and has built it into one of the most valuable, fastest growing and most popular sports businesses in the world,” said Mr. Zuckerberg in his post. “I admired him as an entrepreneur and his ability to build such a beloved brand.”
In 2023, Mr. White attempted to mediate a cage match between Mr. Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, Tesla and SpaceX. Mr. Musk, who has become a close ally of Mr. Trump eventually pulled out of the fight, citing an old injury. He claimed Mr Zuckerberg was to blame for not making himself available to fight later.
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, created three new board positions for the appointments, bringing the total number to 13. Mr. Zuckerberg said the company had also added John Elkann, chief executive of Exor, a European holding company that controls Jeep and Ferrari, and Charlie Songhurst, a technology investor who formerly worked at Microsoft and recently advised Meta on artificial intelligence projects. intelligence.
“We have tremendous opportunities ahead of us in artificial intelligence, wearables and the future of social media, and our board will help us achieve our vision,” wrote Mr. Zuckerberg.
Meta in recent years has begun making wearable technology such as gaming headsets and camera-equipped sunglasses. It is also competing in a global AI race, launching its own production system with “open source” code so that it can be freely copied, modified and reused by anyone.
Metta has faced harsh criticism from Republicans for restricting his content on social media platforms, which Mr. Trump and others argue it amounts to censorship of conservative voices. Some of the people the president-elect has used to regulate the tech and other industries have vowed to crack down as a result.
In recent weeks, Mr. Zuckerberg met with Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, during which the tech executive congratulated the president-elect on winning the election.
