Elon Musk accidentally posted his phone number on Twitter, reaching out to a Facebook exec (FB, TSLA)

Elon Musk

Elon Musk accidentally tweeted his phone number to his 16.7 million followers.
It looks like the number was for an iPhone, given that it works with Apple iMessage.
He was apparently trying to send it to John Carmack, the chief technology officer of Facebook's Oculus virtual reality subsidiary.

Looks like Elon Musk is going to have to change his phone number.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO posted his phone number on Twitter. The tweet was directed at John Carmack, the chief technology officer of Oculus, Facebook's virtual reality subsidiary, but Musk posted it so that anyone could see it.

The tweet was swiftly deleted, but not before it was noticed by many of Musk's 16.7 million Twitter followers.

While Business Insider isn't going to share the number, it does indeed appear to be Musk's personal phone — it registers as ready for Apple iMessage. A reporter at CNBC dialed the number, and found that Musk's "ringing music" is actually a reference to the classic PlayStation game "God of War."

"By the Gods you've done it," the message starts, according to CNBC. "Somehow you've found your way here to me. I offer you my congratulations and my respect."

As for why Musk wanted to talk to Carmack — well, that's anyone's guess.

Carmack is a video-game industry legend, coming to prominence as a cofounder of id Software, the company behind game classics including "Doom" and "Quake." In 2013, Carmack joined Oculus and stayed with the company even after Facebook's purchased it for $2.3 billion in 2014.

Musk hasn't shown much public interest in virtual reality, focusing more on things such as spaceships, cars, and solar panels. Still, when he was 12, he become something of a video game entrepreneur, selling a simple game called "Blastar" to a computer magazine for $500. He once described it as "a trivial game […] but better than Flappy Bird."

So maybe Musk wants to hire Carmack away from Facebook. Or, perhaps, Musk is trying to get back into the video game business. Or maybe he just wants to play a round of "Quake" for old times sake. Who knows?

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