AP Images; Reuters/Robert Galbraith
- Mark Zuckerberg revealed that he loves eating McDonald's burgers, fries, nuggets, and desserts.
- Warren Buffett grabs McDonald's for breakfast on his way to work, and once held a 4% stake.
- Their ties to the fast-food giant go way back: Zuckerberg picked college over running a franchise.
Mark Zuckerberg and Warren Buffett have more in common than being centibillionaires and CEOs of Fortune 50 companies. They both love McDonald's.
Zuckerberg revealed his fondness for the fast-food chain in a Threads post on Monday. McDonald's asked its followers if they'd like anything to eat, and the Meta Platforms chief replied: "20 nuggets, a quarter pounder, large fries, Oreo McFlurry, apple pie, and maybe some side cheeseburgers for later?"
The social-media tycoon is on a fitness kick, centered on jiu-jitsu and mixed martial arts (MMA). When his trainer objected to his supersized order, Zuckerberg responded: "Not cutting weight so I need ~4000 calories a day to offset all the activity. And it's so delicious..."
The Meta boss might enjoy eating McDonald's, but he's stopped short of running his own franchise. When Zuckerberg was a teenager, his father let him choose between that option and attending college. Zuckerberg picked the latter path, but ended up dropping out of Harvard in 2004 after building an early version of Facebook in his dorm room.
As for Buffett, he's been a McDonald's fan for decades. The 92-year-old investor grabs breakfast there during his morning drive to Berkshire Hathaway's headquarters. Moreover, Berkshire-owned Jazwares recently teamed up with the fast-food giant to launch a Squishmallow-branded Happy Meal and McFlurry.
Buffett — who proudly eats like a six-year-old — has even bought McDonald's stock: Berkshire held a 4.3% stake in the company worth $1.4 billion at the end of 1996.
The junk-food connoisseur also praised McDonald's as an "outstanding business" and said he was "happy to eat there every day." Although he cashed in Berkshire's position in the company by the end of 1998, he admitted that was a "very big mistake" in his letter to shareholders for that year.
"I would say that that particular decision has cost you, hmm, in the area of $1 billion-plus," Buffett lamented during Berkshire's annual shareholders meeting in 1999. Indeed, McDonald's stock price has jumped by about seven times since then, while the S&P 500 has climbed by less than four-fold over the same period.
While Zuckerberg turned down the chance to be a McDonald's franchisee, and Buffett sold his stake in the company, it's clear they're both passionate about the burger chain's offerings. The next step might just be a Zuckerburger or a McBuffett.