It’s a social media showdown between two tech super-titans that’s gone viral. In one corner is Elon Musk – no introduction needed, sitting comfortably as the world’s richest man. In the other corner, is one of Silicon Valley’s earliest billionaires, Indian-American Vinod Khosla. Back in 1982, Khosla co-founded Sun Microsystems and today he heads Khosla Ventures, which has helped mint many multi-billion-dollar tech giants.

The two have been feuding with each other on X (formerly known as Twitter), trading digital insults over everything from the US presidential race to AI. In one exchange, Musk, never one to mince words, started with: “Vinod is dumb” as the pair clashed over Donald Trump’s plans to slash government spending. Hours later, for those who missed the first jab, he offered a follow-up: “Vinod is just actually not smart.”

It was the latest jab in a vituperative exchange that kicked off a day earlier about a beach next to a property belonging to Khosla. Musk put up a fake sign that in large letters insisted: “NO PLEBS allowed.” For good measure, he fired an extra insult, saying: “Wow, so crazy that @vkhosla put this sign on a public beach.” For good measure, he threw in an expletive-laced kicker: “You won’t even let people use your f***ng beach, you a**hole.”

Khosla wasted no time firing back: “Keeping up with your new mentor @realdonaldtrump in tweeting fictional photographs… Get details before you tweet nonsense.” To drive the message home he added: “Name-calling and irrelevant fictional pics is the best you can do….”

The verbal fisticuffs haven’t been limited to beach signs. The two have locked horns over a variety of high-profile topics. On immigration, Khosla took potshots at Trump and J.D. Vance, who have continued to spread bizarre lies about Haitian immigrants stealing cats and eating them in Springfield, a small city in Ohio. “The mice in Springfield are complaining that there are no reduction in cats because of the Haitians,” Khosla wisecracked. Shot back Musk: “Answer my question: how many unvetted immigrants can we send to your town?”

On illegal immigrants supposedly committing a huge number of crimes, Musk ventured into darker territory, asking Khosla: “How would you feel if someone tried to hurt your daughter with a machete?” Khosla didn’t flinch: “Why are you trying to amplify immigrant hate? He added: “Hate causes more serious crime than illegal immigrants.”

On the surface, the two are battling about the highly vitriolic presidential elections in which insults are being flung almost every day. Musk’s a staunch and highly vocal supporter of Trump. Khosla is steadfastly backing fellow Californian, the Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

But that fight is a cover for a much bigger, and possibly even more consequential scrap. The real battle between the two men is about the future direction that the world’s most advanced technologies should take.

Specifically, it’s about artificial intelligence (AI) and whether it could be such a global game-changer that it needs to be regulated for the safety of humankind.

On the frontlines with Khosla is Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn and another mega-venture capitalist with deep pockets. Forbes magazine put Khosla on its cover recently with the dramatic headline: “The Epic Battle for AI’s Future.” Forbes described Khosla on its cover as a “Silicon Valley Statesman”.

Khosla and Hoffman both insist AI will be totally transformational and we will start to feel its effects in the next one-to-two years. “I estimate that 80 per cent of all jobs, maybe more, can be done by an AI,” is the message Khosla has been consistently hammering home to different audiences.

And nobody will be spared from the gigantic wrenching change, he insists, saying AI is coming for your job: “Be it primary care doctors, psychiatrists, salespeople, oncologists, farm workers or assembly line workers, structural engineers, chip designers, you name it.”

Khosla is almost apocalyptic about the upheavals he predicts AI will usher in. “I am awestruck at the rate of progress on all fronts. Today’s expectation of capability a year from now will only look silly. And yet most businesses have no clue what is about to hit them in the next 10 years when most rules of engagement change. It’s time to rethink/transform every business in the next decade.”

Backing Khosla and Hoffman are Silicon Valley behemoths like Google, Microsoft who all have interests in Sam Altman’s OpenAI. But they’re up against a powerful, newer crew on the block including Musk, Peter Thiel, (who founded PayPal with Musk and others), Marc Andreesen and Ben Horowitz. Andreesen is one of Silicon Valley’s pioneers and founded Netscape, the maker of one of the earliest web browsers. He and Horowitz now run venture capital giant Andreesen Horowitz. Musk, Thiel and the others are pushing for “open-source development” where anyone can tinker with publicly available software without any oversight.

Musk and his allies believe that Khosla and others seeking to regulate AI are trying to tie up competitors in a web of regulations. They’re fighting all efforts to bring in any kind of regulations and that has taken them into the political sphere backing the Republican Party and Trump and Vance.

Andreesen Horowitz’s online portal insists that, “the time has come to stand up for Little Tech. Our political efforts as a firm are entirely focused on defending Little Tech.”

Incidentally, Vance, who till quite recently worked for Thiel, has also pocketed $15 million in donations from him for his election kitty. Musk, Thiel, Andreesen, Horowitz aren’t just battling for unregulated AI – they’re also fighting for the loosest possible rules on cryptocurrency.

Finally, there’s climate change which Khosla, for the last 20 years, has insisted is the greatest challenge facing humanity. Musk goaded him, tweeting: “Come on Vinod. Trump/Vance LFG (let’s freaking go for it). Khosla stonily replied: “Hard for me to support someone with no values, who lies, cheats, rapes, demeans women, hates migrants like me. He may taxes or reduce some regulation but that is no reason to accept depravity in his personal values. Do you want a president who will set back climate change by a decade in his first year?”

Khosla then added: “I was a registered Republican when Bush, McCain and many Republican senators supported climate change. Now I am an independent.” When Khosla attacked Trump, Musk weighed in: “Vinod, please stop being so deranged about Trump.”

Financially, there’s no contest between the two billionaires. Musk, with a staggering $263 billion, easily outdistances Khosla, who is worth a comparatively modest $7.5 billion. But if Khosla’s investments in OpenAI come good, his wealth will skyrocket. In India, one AI company backed by Khosla is Sarvam which aims to leverage AI in health and education.

Will the slanging match of these two titans end anytime soon? Expect the furious exchanges to rage on through the election. And even when that’s over, the AI war will still be looming – and that’s a global battle far bigger than beaches and social media insults.