From McDonald’s binges to meditation retreats: Top tech CEOs' unconventional habits revealed

Musk’s 8 Diet Cokes a day

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who has claimed to work up to 120 hours a week, reportedly relied heavily on caffeine to manage his intense workload. According to Business Insider, Musk used to drink at least 8 cans of Diet Coke daily, along with several large cups of coffee.

Each can of Diet Coke contains 42 mg of caffeine, meaning Musk consumed approximately 336 mg from soda alone. Combined with coffee, his intake likely exceeded the recommended daily limit of 400 mg for most adults.

"I got so freaking jacked that I seriously started to feel like I was losing my peripheral vision," Musk told Inc. magazine. He later stated that he switched to caffeine-free Diet Coke.

Zuckerberg’s 4,000-calorie fast-food diet

Meta's founder Mark Zuckerberg having a McDonald meal. Photo courtesy of Zuckerberg's Instagram

Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg followed a 4,000-calorie-per-day meal plan in 2023 while preparing for a rumored MMA fight with Musk, according to Men’s Health.

"Not cutting weight so I need ~4000 calories a day to offset all the activity. And it's so delicious...," he wrote on Threads.

The post was a reply to McDonald’s asking users to share their favorite orders. Zuckerberg listed his as "20 nuggets, a quarter pounder, large fries, Oreo McFlurry, apple pie, and maybe some side cheeseburgers for later?"

Bezos lets meetings ‘wander’

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos favors unstructured, free-flowing meetings as a way to spark creativity, Fortune reported.

"I like the memos to be like angels seeing it from high. It’s so clear and beautiful, and then the meeting can be messy," Bezos said at the New York Times DealBook Summit in December 2024. "I want the meetings to wander."

He shared a similar view on the Lex Fridman Podcast, saying: "Real invention, real lateral thinking, that requires wandering." However, Bezos added that not all meetings should be messy. At Amazon, weekly business reviews followed a strict agenda, and meetings focused on product sales required thorough preparation.

CATL chief naps at noon

Robin Zeng, founder and CEO of Chinese EV battery giant CATL. Photo from Zeng's Facebook

Robin Zeng, founder and CEO of Chinese EV battery giant CATL, often referred to as China’s "Battery King", takes a nap at noon every day in his office, according to an interview with the Financial Times.

Short naps of 20–30 minutes are commonly recommended by mental health professionals to improve focus and reduce fatigue, Business Insider reported.

Uber and Lyft bosses take the wheel

U.S.'s ride-hailing company Lyft CEO David Risher told Business Insider that he works as a driver every six weeks to better understand the customer experience.

"I drive to learn about what our riders are going through when they get in the car and why our customers choose us over the other guys," Risher said.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi also spent time driving. In a 2023 interview with The Wall Street Journal, he revealed that he completed dozens of trips in a used Tesla Model Y under the alias "Dave K." During one ride, he was stuck in traffic and experienced firsthand the daily challenges faced by Uber drivers.

"The industry as a whole, to some extent, has taken drivers for granted," he said.

Shopify CEO sticks to 5:30 p.m. cutoff

Shopify CEO Tobias Lutke said he avoids long work hours and never stays past 5:30 p.m., according to CNBC.

"I’ve never worked through a night," Lutke wrote in a thread on X. "The only times I worked more than 40 hours in a week was when I had the burning desire to do so. I need 8ish hours of sleep a night."

He argued that working 80-hour weeks is not necessary for success, claiming that most people have only "5 creative hours" of productive time per day.

Dorsey’s daily two-hour meditation

Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter (now X) meditates in a cave in Myanmar. Photo courtesy of Dorsey's X

Jack Dorsey, founder of financial services company Block and former CEO of Twitter (now X), followed a strict wellness regimen to maintain focus. He told CNBC that his daily routine included walking five miles, meditating for two hours, and eating one meal.

For his birthday in 2018, he spent 10 days at a silent meditation retreat in Myanmar, where he practiced a technique he said would "hack the deepest layer of the mind and reprogram it."

He claimed to have meditated for up to 17 hours a day and was once bitten 117 times by mosquitoes while meditating in a cave.