Elon Musk and Sam Altman have once again turned their long-running feud into a public spectacle, this time after Apple’s recent lawsuit against OpenAI gave Musk fresh ammunition. The exchange played out on X over the weekend, with both tech billionaires firing off barbs that mixed legal drama, product jabs, and plenty of ego.
A feud that never really ended
Musk used the moment to accuse Altman of theft and even claimed the OpenAI chief had taken “all of Apple’s phone technology.” Altman, in turn, mocked Musk’s space ambitions, taking a swipe at his pitch for SpaceX-powered data centers. What makes the latest round notable is how quickly the Apple lawsuit pulled the two back into the same fight they have been having for years.
The insults flew on X
Musk escalated the banter by calling Altman a master of “scamming,” while Altman responded with sarcasm about Musk selling investors on short-term space datacenters. Musk then said those datacenters would start flying next year and joked that Altman could visit them if his parole officer approved.
Altman got the last word by suggesting the best evidence OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Sol is the world’s top model is that “Elon is obsessed with me again.” The exchange may be childish, but it underscores how personal the Musk-Altman rivalry has become.
In the grand scheme of things?
This latest clash is happening against the backdrop of earlier legal tensions, including a judge’s order for both sides to keep their dispute off social media. That order may have passed, but the feud clearly did not. For Silicon Valley watchers including myself, we can only sit back and watch how two of the industry’s most powerful figures keep turning serious business disputes into very public online theater.
