Dana White, U.F.C. Head, Joins Meta’s Board

In recent years, Mr. White and Mr. Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, have bonded over their passion for professional fighting, including mixed martial arts, which Mr. Zuckerberg took up in 2022.

“Dana is the President and CEO of the UFC and has built it into one of the most valuable, fastest-growing and most popular sports businesses in the world,” Mr. Zuckerberg said in the post. “I admire him as an entrepreneur and his ability to create such a beloved brand.”

In 2023, Mr. White tried cage match mediation between Zuckerberg and Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, Tesla and SpaceX. Mr Musk, who had become a close ally of Mr Trump, eventually withdrew from the battle, citing an old injury. He said it was Zuckerberg’s fault for failing to enter the fray later.

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, created three new board seats for the appointments, bringing the total to 13. Mr. Zuckerberg said the company also added John Elkannthe chief executive of Exor, the European holding company that controls Jeep and Ferrari, and Charlie Songhurst, a technology investor who formerly worked at Microsoft and recently advised Meta on artificial intelligence projects.

“We have tremendous opportunities ahead in artificial intelligence, wearables and the future of social media, and our board will help us realize our vision,” Mr. Zuckerberg wrote.

In recent years, Meta has begun making wearable devices such as gaming headsets and camera-equipped sunglasses. It is also participating in the global artificial intelligence race. launching our own generative system with “open source” so that it can be freely copied, modified and reused by anyone.

Meta has faced intense criticism from Republicans over content moderation on its social media platforms, which Trump and others say amounts to censorship of conservative voices. Some of the people the president-elect has tapped to regulate tech and other industries have promised deal with as a result.

In recent weeks, Mr. Zuckerberg met with Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, during which the tech executive congratulated the president-elect on his election victory.