- Elon Musk called OpenAI CEO Sam Altman a scammer amid Apple’s lawsuit against OpenAI
- Musk accused Altman of stealing Apple’s trade secrets for building AI hardware devices
- Altman criticised Musk’s SpaceX plans for space data centers and called him out publicly
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have once again locked horns after Apple sued OpenAI, accusing the artificial intelligence company of stealing its trade secrets to build its own hardware device.
Musk referred to the OpenAI boss as "Scam Altman" and wrote, "Scam Altman is super good at scamming."
Responding to Musk's post, an account on X wrote, "Elon Musk warned the world about Scam Altman, and now everyone is finding out why."
Musk then replied to the post, saying, "He takes scamming to a whole new level."
Altman hit back, writing, "Homeboy you're the one selling public market investors on short-term space datacenters," referring to SpaceX's reported plans to deploy data centres in space, a project Musk has discussed through SpaceX's Starlink and Starship ambitions.
homeboy you're the one sellling public market investors on short-term space datacenters https://t.co/wTYSA4q3Qx
— Sam Altman (@sama) July 11, 2026
Responding to Altman's remark, Musk said, "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."
We start flying them next year. Maybe you can come see them if your parole officer approves.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2026
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 separate post on X, Altman took another swipe at Musk while referring to OpenAI's latest AI model. "There 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," he wrote.
there 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
— Sam Altman (@sama) July 11, 2026
The latest exchange is part of a long-running public feud between the two tech leaders.
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 before leaving the company, has repeatedly accused OpenAI of abandoning its original nonprofit mission. However, Altman has consistently rejected those allegations.
