{"id":758868,"date":"2026-07-12T17:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/758868\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T17:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:07:08","slug":"elon-musk-and-sam-altman-spar-on-x-after-apple-files-openai-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/758868\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk and Sam Altman spar on X after Apple files OpenAI lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/elon-musk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Elon Musk<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/sam-altman\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sam Altman<\/a> criticized each other in new posts on X, highlighting the billionaires&#8217; long-standing tussle over OpenAI&#8217;s evolution.<\/p>\n<p>Musk and Altman helped to start OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit artificial intelligence research lab alongside a band of engineers and scientists. <\/p>\n<p>In 2018, Musk left OpenAI&#8217;s board after donating tens of millions to the organization, although he later objected to Altman&#8217;s efforts to construct &#8220;an opaque web of for-profit OpenAI affiliates&#8221; in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2024\/08\/05\/elon-musk-revives-lawsuit-against-openai-sam-altman-in-federal-court.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">lawsuit<\/a> that went to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/05\/12\/openai-trial-updates-sam-altman-set-to-testify-in-musk-suit.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">trial<\/a> in California this year. A jury ruled in favor of Altman, and Musk said he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/05\/18\/musk-altman-openai-trial-verdict.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">would appeal<\/a> the case.<\/p>\n<p>Weeks later, Musk&#8217;s company SpaceX \u2014 which controls the X social platform, the xAI lab that challenges OpenAI and the Starlink broadband internet service \u2014 completed its landmark <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/06\/12\/spacex-ipo-spcx-live-updates.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">initial public offering<\/a>. SpaceX raised a record $75 billion as it promoted plans to launch data centers into space, in addition to ambitions in enterprise AI applications and interplanetary transportation. Meanwhile, OpenAI has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/06\/08\/openai-confidentially-files-for-ipo-prepping-wall-street-for-ai-debut.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">filed confidentially<\/a> for its own IPO.<\/p>\n<p>This week, SpaceX released the Grok 4.5 generative AI model, while OpenAI debuted its own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/07\/09\/open-ai-sam-altman-chatgpt-5-6-sol.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">GPT-5.6 Sol<\/a>. For days, Musk and Altman have hyped up their respective releases, but on Saturday the rivalry got personal.<\/p>\n<p>In response to a post about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/AAPL\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Apple<\/a> filing suit against OpenAI on Friday over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/07\/10\/apple-openai-lawsuit-trade-secrets.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">alleged theft<\/a> of trade secrets, Musk <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/2075886243246649406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">wrote<\/a>, &#8220;Scam Altman strikes again \u2026&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/TSLA\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tesla<\/a> and SpaceX CEO has used the &#8220;Scam Altman&#8221; moniker to refer to the OpenAI CEO on several occasions over the past year. Minutes after his post, Musk <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/2075892136604573903\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">doubled down<\/a>, writing, &#8220;He takes scamming to a whole new level.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Next, Musk <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/2075926239848611976\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">published a photo<\/a> of Altman that included the words, &#8220;I&#8217;m doing this because I love it.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;By &#8216;this&#8217; he means scamming,&#8221; Musk wrote, including two rolling-on-the-floor-laughing emojis.<\/p>\n<p>Musk then <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/2075926480387776675\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">replied<\/a> to that post, writing, &#8220;He might literally love scamming more than any human alive!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The flurry of social activity got Altman&#8217;s attention.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[H]omeboy you&#8217;re the one sellling public market investors on short-term space datacenters,&#8221; Altman wrote in an <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/sama\/status\/2075982617976230043\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">X post<\/a> of his own that garnered over 11 million views.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We start flying them next year. Maybe you can come see them if your parole officer approves,&#8221; Musk <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/2076070258654183767\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">fired back<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Separately, Altman put Musk&#8217;s fresh wave of attention in the context of OpenAI&#8217;s fresh model release.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[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,&#8221; Altman wrote <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/sama\/status\/2075983427019612242\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere on X, the account <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/iliketeslas\/status\/2076029296770957502\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">@iliketeslas<\/a> asserted that Altman is scared of Apple. That, too, prompted a response from Altman.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[I] am not afraid of apple, but i have tremendous respect for them. s-tier company,&#8221; Altman <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/sama\/status\/2076034575311278319\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">wrote<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Altman&#8217;s post led Nikita Bier, X&#8217;s head of product, to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nikitabier\/status\/2076038516056969424\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">respond<\/a>: &#8220;Incredible trade secrets as well, some of the best.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Musk <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk\/status\/2076100183100682607\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">replied<\/a> with a face-with-tears-of-joy emoji.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, an OpenAI spokesperson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2026\/07\/10\/apple-openai-lawsuit-trade-secrets.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told CNBC<\/a>, &#8220;We have no interest in other companies&#8217; trade secrets.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>WATCH: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/video\/2026\/05\/18\/elon-musk-loses-court-battle-against-sam-altman-openai.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Elon Musk loses court battle against Sam Altman, OpenAI<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elon Musk and Sam Altman criticized each other in new posts on X, highlighting the billionaires&#8217; long-standing tussle&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":758869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[11623,5681,28,122,11,11718,7047,49024,28315,74,10058],"class_list":["post-758868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-apple-inc","tag-breaking-news-technology","tag-business","tag-business-news","tag-elon-musk","tag-enterprise","tag-sam-altman","tag-satya-nadella","tag-space-exploration-technologies-corp","tag-technology","tag-tesla-inc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=758868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/758868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/758869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=758868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=758868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=758868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}