(Washington) The potential “fight” between X and Meta bosses Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg could take place in Italy, Musk said on Friday, with the Italian government confirming talks of a “combat event.” charity “.

The two billionaires at the head of the competing tech giants mentioned a filmed mixed martial arts (MMA) match between them at the end of June, the date of August 26 having even been suggested a few days ago.

“Everything in camera shot will be like ancient Roman times, so nothing modern,” Elon Musk wrote on his X platform.

“The fight will be managed” by their respective foundations, he added.

“I spoke to the Italian Prime Minister and the Minister of Culture. They have agreed to an extraordinary place,” he said, adding in a second message, the single word “Gladiator”.

The Italian Minister of Culture, for his part, said he was discussing with Elon Musk the organization of a “big charity event evoking history”, according to a press release on Friday.

“It will not be organized in Rome”, added Gennaro Sangiuliano, thus ruling out the possibility of a joust at the Colosseum, as Elon Musk had mentioned at the end of June.

The sum that could be collected during the event, estimated at “several million euros, will be donated to two Italian children’s hospitals”, added the minister, hoping to take the opportunity to “promote our history”.

“The whole thing will pay homage to Italy past and present,” Elon Musk said on the platform he bought last year for $44 billion.

“Dulce est desipere in loco”, “it is sweet sometimes to let reason sleep”, he also wrote, taking up, in Latin in the text, a quotation from the poet Horace.

The two tech giants have clashed for years over their opposing views of the world, from politics to artificial intelligence. But the animosity between them escalated further with the launch in early July by Mark Zuckerberg and his group Meta (Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram) of Threads, a direct competitor to Twitter, now X.