Silicon Valley's hot new talking points: beer and cigarettes

Jensen Huang, among other tech figures, features on the "Tech Founder Beer Matrix" as a "beer sipper" and "good hang." Bloomberg/Getty Images After Mark Zuckerberg drank a Guinness, tech bros can't stop talking about drinking beer.

One X user created the "Cheeky Pint Benchmark," while another ranked execs on a "beer matrix." Cigarettes are in focus, too, after Palantir's CTO said some AI researchers are taking up smoking.

After Mark Zuckerberg’s cautious-looking sip of stout on Stripe cofounder John Collison’s "Cheeky Pint" podcast became a social-media talking point , a new debate has emerged: which tech leaders can actually hold their drink? Soon after Zuckerberg's much-memed appearance, ETN, a tech podcast, built what it called the "Cheeky Pint Benchmark," publishing a leaderboard of guests' Guinness consumption, measured to the nearest sixth of a pint.

Elon Musk , the world’s richest man, currently tops the chart after drinking three full pints during his appearance on Collison’s show.

Introducing The Cheeky Pint Benchmark.

We made our intern watch every episode of Cheeky Pint to bring you this breakdown of pints drank by guests to the nearest sixth.

Congratulations to @elonmusk who is currently in the lead with three full pints of Guinness. pic.twitter.com/YTTP4P6BSA — etn. (@etnshow) October 13, 2026 The chart prompted characteristically competitive responses from the tech world.

Antonio García Martínez, a director at Base, said the benchmark was "weak sauce in general." 1.

Richest man in the world drank the most 2.

This is pretty weak sauce in general, though not bad for people on a public podcast with a reputation on the line 3.

Kind of curious if the Collisons match their guests https://t.co/JhqTjDztEe — Antonio García Martínez (agm.eth) (@antoniogm) October 13, 2026 Andreessen Horowitz partner Martin Casado joked that he'd drink so much if he went on the podcast that the index would need a new scale.

If they invite me, you'll need to make this log scale. https://t.co/8YaB0yWPun — martin_casado (@martin_casado) October 14, 2026 The benchmark follows a viral clip of Zuckerberg appearing to grimace after taking a sip of Guinness during a recent two-hour-plus episode with Meta’s chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang .

One X user came to Zuckerberg’s defense, arguing that Guinness was "performative at best" and noting that the Meta CEO had nevertheless finished two beers during the interview.