Ryan Cohen jokingly challenges Warren Buffett

“I challenge Warren Buffett to a thumb war,” Chewy’s billionaire cofounder tweeted on Friday, along with a thumbs-up emoji.

Cohen, a meme-stock specialist, serves as GameStop’s executive chairman and made about $70 million on Bed Bath & Beyond before its bankruptcy. He told Insider in October 2020 that Buffett was one of the two biggest influences on his professional life, along with his father.

After selling Chewy for $3.4 billion in 2017, Cohen plowed the bulk of his wealth into two of Berkshire Hathaway’s biggest holdings at the time: Apple and Wells Fargo. Like Buffett, he prizes focus, conviction, independent thought, and disciplined capital allocation in his business decisions, he told Insider.

Cohen’s lighthearted challenge to Buffett was likely prompted by Musk and Zuckerberg’s fighting words last week, which have sent global media outlets into a tizzy.

“I’m up for a cage match if he is lol,” the Twitter owner and Tesla and SpaceX CEO tweeted about Zuckerberg.

“Send Me Location,” the Meta Platforms CEO and jiu-jitsu practitioner replied on Instagram, which his company owns along with Facebook and WhatsApp.

It’s hard to imagine Musk and Zuckerberg actually trading blows, or the 92-year-old Buffett engaging in a thumb wrestle with Cohen. But it’s worth noting the Berkshire chief does enjoy publicity stunts, ranging from playing table tennis with an Olympian, to arm-wrestling a NFL lineman, and tossing newspapers with Bill Gates.