Sam Altman Confronts Elon Musk in Legal Battle Over OpenAI

The latest public spat between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI founder Elon Musk on X, ostensibly over Apple App Store rankings, appears to be less about app visibility and more a reflection of escalating tensions driven by a significant legal development. A recent court ruling has cleared the way for OpenAI to pursue claims that Musk orchestrated a “years-long harassment campaign” against the company he co-founded, allegedly motivated by its success after his departure.

OpenAI’s accusations surfaced as counterclaims in a lawsuit Musk initiated in 2024. In his original filing, Musk contended that Altman and OpenAI had misled him, securing $44 million in donations by appealing to his humanitarian concerns about artificial intelligence’s existential risks, only to later abandon the nonprofit mission for commercial gain. OpenAI, however, paints a different picture, asserting that Musk’s lawsuit is merely one facet of a broader, “unlawful,” and “unrelenting” campaign to undermine its business, forcing it to divert resources towards battling withdrawn legal claims and even “fake” buyout offers.

According to OpenAI, Musk “could not tolerate seeing such success for an enterprise he had abandoned and declared doomed.” The company alleges he then made it his personal mission to dismantle OpenAI and establish a direct competitor, xAI, not for the benefit of humanity, but for his own advantage. A particularly significant allegation involves a “sham” bid in February to acquire OpenAI, with Musk reportedly sharing details of this offer with The Wall Street Journal to inflate OpenAI’s valuation and potentially deter investors. OpenAI claims Musk never intended to buy the company, instead seeking to mislead the public and erode its lead in generative AI products.

While a US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that OpenAI’s counterclaims must wait until after Musk’s initial claims are litigated, with a jury trial scheduled for March 30, 2026, the court did acknowledge the validity of OpenAI’s pleading regarding the alleged sham bid. Judge Gonzalez Rogers noted the “gamesmanship of both sides” as “obvious, as each flip flops,” yet found OpenAI’s allegation that the bid was designed to mislead and ultimately harmed its business sufficient to proceed. OpenAI has warned the court of “future irreparable harm” if Musk’s alleged campaign persists.

The recent exchange on X underscores the deepening animosity. Musk threatened to sue Apple, claiming its App Store favored ChatGPT—an “unequivocal antitrust violation.” Altman swiftly defended Apple, alleging that Musk himself manipulates X to benefit his own companies and harm rivals. This prompted an angry retort from Musk, who accused Altman of lying about engagement figures. Altman then directly challenged Musk, daring him to sign an affidavit confirming he has never directed changes to the X algorithm to hurt competitors or help his own ventures, promising an apology if he did.

The current legal and public battles represent a dramatic collapse of a friendship that began over dinner in July 2015, when Musk agreed to help launch OpenAI as an “AGI project.” Early disagreements emerged over OpenAI’s nonprofit structure, a proposed deal with Microsoft, and Musk’s desire for “sole control” and the CEO role, which other founders, including Altman, resisted, rejecting the idea of an “AGI dictatorship.” Musk’s suggestion to sell OpenAI to Tesla as a “cash cow” was also rebuffed, leading to his “noisy but relatively amicable” departure in 2018.

For years, despite these underlying tensions, Musk and Altman maintained a public facade of civility on Twitter/X, engaging in casual banter. This began to unravel after ChatGPT’s launch in November 2022. OpenAI alleges Musk initially dismissed the company as “irrelevant,” then called for a six-month pause on AI development, seemingly targeting OpenAI’s progress, all while secretly building xAI. This was followed by demands for confidential OpenAI documents and public insinuations about its partnership with Microsoft.

As OpenAI’s success mounted, Musk’s attacks on X intensified, with him branding OpenAI a “house of cards,” “evil,” and a “total scam” to his millions of followers. He also reportedly pressured regulators to investigate OpenAI. Musk argues that Altman betrayed OpenAI’s founding mission for personal gain, accusing him of “locking down the non-profit’s technology for personal gain” and attempting to monopolize the generative AI market. He claims Altman’s “scheme” was to “lure Musk with phony philanthropy; exploit his money, stature, and contacts…then feed the non-profit’s lucrative assets into an opaque profit engine.”

This week’s direct confrontation on X marks a significant shift in Altman’s public strategy. Previously, he often responded cautiously or remained silent in the face of Musk’s barbs. However, his recent, more aggressive stance—daring Musk to sign an affidavit and publicly challenging his claims about the Stargate Project—suggests Altman is no longer willing to let Musk control the narrative. The public and legal sparring between the two tech titans, fueled by a complex history of collaboration and betrayal, shows no signs of abating as their high-stakes battle for AI supremacy unfolds.