Elon Musk, Sam Altman feud reignites after Apple – Business News
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reignited their almost decade-long feud over the weekend, trading barbs after Apple sued OpenAI for allegedly stealing its commerce secrets and techniques.
In a Saturday post on X, Musk replied to a different post saying that Apple was suing Altman’s company, invoking his longtime nickname for Altman: “Scam Altman strikes again…”
A couple of minutes later, Musk jabbed at Altman again, writing: “He takes scamming to a whole new level.”
Tesla founder Elon Musk (above) lashed out at OpenAI’s Sam Altman after Apple sued the AI company. Getty Images
The world’s richest man continued his barrage of posts with an image of Altman that included the phrases “I’m doing this because I love it” – writing, “By ‘this’ he means scamming.”
“He might literally love scamming more than any human alive!” Musk added.
The stream of posts apparently caught Altman’s consideration, who rapidly took the chance to lash out at Musk’s own business ventures – together with his debut of rocket-launch firm SpaceX on the Nasdaq final month, which was the largest-ever IPO. OpenAI has filed for its own IPO.
“[H]omeboy you’re the one sellling [sic] public market investors on short-term space datacenters,” Altman wrote in a Saturday post that has racked up almost 15 million views.
Musk replied: “We start flying them next year. Maybe you can come see them if your parole officer approves. After stealing an open source AI charity, you then stole all of Apple’s phone technology! Wow. What do you plan for an encore? That’s tough to beat.”
In a lawsuit filed Friday, Apple alleged that “at every level… OpenAI has been stealing Apple’s trade secrets.” According to the grievance, one junior worker improperly used an Apple worker’s login credentials to entry company servers.
Apple additionally alleges that OpenAI {hardware} chief Tang Tan – who spent 24 years at Apple, together with as vice president of product design – solicited confidential data from Apple staff interviewing for jobs. Tan allegedly inspired them to convey “actual parts” from Apple to “show and tell” classes.
The lawsuit harks back to Apple’s bruising legal struggle in opposition to Google’s Android ecosystem more than a decade in the past – during which Steve Jobs vowed to wage “thermonuclear war” in opposition to what he known as a “stolen product.”
Apple additionally beforehand accused Samsung of “slavishly” copying the iPhone with its smartphones. Samsung denied the allegations, and after years of courtroom fights the businesses settled in 2018.
But Altman took Musk’s mockery on Saturday as a probability to advertise OpenAI’s latest chatbot.
Last week, OpenAI launched GPT-5.6 Sol whereas Musk launched Grok 4.5.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (above) criticized Musk’s SpaceX IPO. Getty Images
“[T]here are a lot of benchmarks that suggest 5.6 sol is the best model in the world right now, but the most reliable way to tell is that elon is obsessed with me again,” Altman taunted.
Altman additionally replied to a post from a Tesla fan account accusing the OpenAI exec of being scared of Apple, responding: “[I] am not afraid of apple [sic], but i [sic] have tremendous respect for them. s-tier [sic] company.”
Nikita Bier, who leads X’s product division, responded: “Incredible trade secrets as well, some of the best.”
Musk and Altman initially labored collectively to launch OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit AI analysis lab – however they devolved from colleagues into public enemies as Musk launched a legal battle in opposition to OpenAI.
Musk and Altman initially labored collectively to launch OpenAI in 2015. REUTERS
In 2018, Musk left OpenAI’s board after donating tens of thousands and thousands to the nonprofit. He later sued the company for trying to transition into a for-profit vehicle, alleging he was misled into believing it could keep a nonprofit.
A jury ruled in favor of Altman and OpenAI, although Musk has mentioned he plans to appeal the case.
Tensions between the pair heated up after Musk introduced over AI researchers and engineering staffers from OpenAI for his own companies, whereas additionally pressuring OpenAI to permit him to merge the lab with Tesla.
After OpenAI refused, Musk ended his donations to the company.
Last summer season, Musk sued Apple and OpenAI, alleging they colluded to demote Grok within the App Store’s rankings of AI chatbots. The case is ongoing and has not gone to trial.
