Elon Musk sides with Apple in OpenAI suit, trades new insults with Sam Altman on X

Elon Musk woke up very happy three days ago when Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) sued OpenAI over claims that the AI giant took private hardware knowledge for new consumer devices.

Since then, Elon has been publicly displaying his support for Apple in the case, on X, as one does. As Cryptopolitan reported previously, Apple says more than 400 former employees later joined OpenAI, naming former design executive Tang Tan as a key figure.

Apple said Tang had asked employees seeking positions at OpenAI to bring genuine components, prototypes, and hardware to meetings where they can be demonstrated to others. Apple maintains that the components involved include circuits and designs for various pieces of hardware related to artificial intelligence products which are not yet available to consumers.

Elon uses Apple’s lawsuit to attack Sam over OpenAI’s past

Elon jumped on the allegations and said Sam had taken scamming to a “whole new level.” He later changed Sam’s name to “Scam Altman” and wrote, “He’s taken fraud to a whole new level.”

Elon also brought back a photo from Sam’s May 2023 Senate hearing. Sam told lawmakers, “I do it because I love this work,” while explaining that he led OpenAI without salary or equity. Elon twisted that line into another insult. He wrote, “When he says ‘this work,’ he means fraud. He probably enjoys scamming more than anyone else in the world.”

Sam answered by calling Elon “homeboy” and going after SpaceX’s planned data centers in orbit. He wrote, “You’re the one selling ‘pop-up shops’ like space data centers to public market investors.”

The reply targeted Elon’s plan to place solar-powered AI computing systems in space. One way around the problem of electricity usage and heat generation is through SpaceX’s proposal. Besides, this would help SpaceX boost its valuation if the company manages to prove orbital computing as scalable technology. Sam has his reservations about whether this business can ever make it into anything real.

Elon replied, “We start flying them next year. Maybe you can come see them if your parole officer approves.”

He then added, “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.”

The fight goes back to OpenAI’s early years. Elon was the main financial supporter when the group still operated as a nonprofit. By 2018, he had become unhappy with how slowly the work was going and tried to take control. Sam and the board rejected him. Elon then left the organization, and the relationship never recovered.

Sam questions Elon’s space plan as OpenAI and xAI release new models

OpenAI had released GPT-5.6 for ChatGPT around the same period that Elon’s xAI launched Grok 4.5. The two companies were already competing over model quality, users, talent, and computing power before Apple’s lawsuit added hardware theft claims to the mix.

Sam promoted OpenAI’s new system and used Elon’s attention as part of his pitch. He wrote, “There is plenty of evidence suggesting this new model is the best AI model out there, but the clearest sign is that Elon Musk is once again obsessed with me.”

Another X user then pulled Apple into the personal fight. The account iliketeslas posted, “Sam Altman wasn’t afraid of Elon but he is terrified of Apple. You can tell by all his posting today.”

Sam denied that claim. He replied, “i am not afraid of Apple, but i have tremendous respect for them. s-tier company.”

Nikita Bier, X’s head of products, answered with a joke aimed at the lawsuit. He wrote, “Incredible trade secrets as well, some of the best.”

Elon responded by laughing at Nikita’s post.