Musk and Altman Trade Accusations Over AI Funding
Elon Musk and Sam Altman have resumed a public dispute as each tries to persuade investors that his company will dominate the next wave of artificial‑intelligence development.
Musk attacks Altman over Apple lawsuit
Apple filed a lawsuit on Friday accusing OpenAI and two former Apple engineers of misappropriating proprietary information to accelerate OpenAI’s hardware efforts. OpenAI responded that it “has no interest in other companies’ trade secrets.” The entrepreneur seized the moment to criticize Altman, posting on X that “Scam Altman strikes again,” a nickname he has used before. Over the next 24 hours he added remarks such as “He takes scamming to a whole new level” and “He might literally love scamming more than any human alive!”
Altman replied on Saturday, turning the accusation back on the founder. He suggested that the SpaceX chief was “the one selling public market investors on short‑term space datacenters.” The founder answered with a reference to orbital data centers, joking that Altman could visit them “if your parole officer approves.” He also linked the Apple case to earlier claims that OpenAI stole an “open source AI charity” and Apple’s phone technology.
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History of the feud
The tension dates back to the founding of OpenAI in 2015. At the time, Altman led Y Combinator while Musk was already managing Tesla and SpaceX. The two, along with other co‑founders, created OpenAI as a nonprofit research lab aimed at advancing digital intelligence for the public good. Early goals included preventing a single company, notably Google, from monopolizing AI.
Disagreements emerged when the billionaire felt the organization lagged behind competitors. In 2018 he offered to assume control of OpenAI and considered integrating it with Tesla, promising roughly $1 billion in funding over several years. Altman and the board rejected the proposal, prompting the founder to leave the board and halt his contributions. The following year, he led a consortium that proposed buying OpenAI for $97.4 billion, but the offer did not materialize.
After ChatGPT’s launch in 2022 turned OpenAI into a high‑profile startup, the rivalry entered the legal arena. In 2024 the entrepreneur sued OpenAI and Altman, alleging that the company had strayed from its nonprofit mission by building a “opaque web of for‑profit OpenAI affiliates” and focusing on commercial returns. He sought $150 billion in damages to be placed in a charitable trust and asked that the for‑profit structure be undone. A jury in May dismissed the case for failing to meet the statute of limitations, and Musk indicated he would appeal.
The dispute has not cooled. In 2023 the founder launched xAI and released a large language model called Grok. Earlier this year SpaceX acquired xAI.
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Both leaders continue to frame their respective projects as essential to the broader AI shift, yet their tactics differ. Musk emphasizes hardware integration with satellite constellations, while Altman focuses on scaling cloud‑based services.
Investors watch closely.
For now, the public exchange shows no sign of abating. Altman’s latest X post referenced Musk’s “obsession,” and the entrepreneur’s recent comments hinted at future launches of orbital data centers. As both companies prepare for upcoming IPOs, the market will watch to see which vision gains more traction.
