- Elon Musk’s feud with Sam Altman arguably began when the two cofounders were at OpenAI, but it has recently escalated into personal attacks and name-calling in public. On Monday, Altman said, “I feel for the guy,” after a Musk-led group of investors made an unsolicited $97.4 billion offer to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI.
Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have been at odds for years, and their conflict may be finally boiling over.
In the latest development of the billionaire feud, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Tesla CEO Musk led a group of investors to make an unsolicited $97.4 billion offer for the nonprofit that controls OpenAI. Altman was not amused by the offer, and quickly rejected it in a post on X.
“No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” Altman wrote.
Musk shot back with a reply calling him a “swindler,” a reference to the Trump-style nickname, “Swindly Sam,” that he has used in the past to refer to Altman.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Altman took a personal slash at Musk. Responding to a question about whether Musk’s bid was “from a position of insecurity” about his own AI company, xAI, Altman responded: “Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity, I feel for the guy.”
“I don’t think he’s, like, a happy person,” Altman added. “I feel for him.”
Altman’s latest jab at Musk comes after the pair exchanged words on X following the announcement of a Trump-approved $500 billion AI infrastructure project last month. The Stargate plan, spearheaded by OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle promised an initial $100 billion investment to build data centers across the U.S.
Yet in a post following the announcement, Musk called into question whether the funds would materialize, leading to a rebuff by President Trump’s team. Altman at the time told his OpenAI employees to “simply ignore” Musk’s comments, the Washington Postreported.
In reply to Musk’s January post on X, the OpenAI CEO sang his praises, calling him “the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time,” but later went after him.
“This is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you’ll mostly put [the U.S.] First,” Altman wrote.
The conflict between Altman and Musk began when the pair were cofounders at OpenAI. Musk in 2018 made an offer to take over the company but was rejected and left “to build an AGI [artificial general intelligence] competitor within Tesla,” according to OpenAI.
Years later, in February 2024, Musk sued both Altman and OpenAI for allegedly violating the company’s nonprofit founding principles.
Musk withdrew the lawsuit after speaking with Altman at a conference in March 2024, but refiled it in August.