The long-simmering rivalry between tech titans Elon Musk and Sam Altman has erupted into a full-blown public and legal battle, revealing a high-stakes struggle for the future of artificial intelligence.
What began as a partnership to build and scale AI has devolved into a bitter feud marked by lawsuits, public taunts, and a brazen takeover bid that nearly brought another industry giant, Mark Zuckerberg, into the fray.
The latest twist comes from a court filing revealing that Musk, reported Reuters, despite a history of public animosity and a near-physical “cage fight” challenge, tried to enlist Zuckerberg to help finance his audacious $97bn bid for OpenAI.
The filing, part of Musk’s ongoing lawsuit against the AI company he co-founded, shows the desperate lengths to which Musk is willing to go to seize control of OpenAI.
The Musk – Altman feud
This development is the latest in a multi-front war between Musk and Altman.
It combines legal discourse, public taunts on X, and a ruthless battle for top AI talent, with the outcome set to shape the balance of power for years to come.
The roots of the conflict go back to 2015, when Musk and Altman co-founded OpenAI with a shared vision to create “artificial general intelligence that benefits all of humanity.”
The partnership, however, was short-lived. A fundamental disagreement emerged over the company’s direction, with Musk pushing for greater control and a potential merger with Tesla, a move rejected by the other founders.
“Musk was incensed,” OpenAI’s legal filings claim, accusing him of threatening to leave the company if he wasn’t granted an “AGI dictatorship.”
As a person close to the company told The Guardian, Musk left the board in 2018 after being “incensed” that the other founders “refused to accept” his proposal to run the new for-profit entity.
Musk’s departure marked the beginning of what OpenAI now describes as a “years-long harassment campaign.”
His attacks, fuelled by the spectacular success of ChatGPT, have intensified, accusing the company of abandoning its non-profit roots for “greed.”
Musk has repeatedly described OpenAI as a “lie,” “evil,” and “a total scam” in posts on X.
A sham bid for OpenAI?
OpenAI’s legal counterclaims allege that Musk’s recent takeover bid was not a genuine offer but a “sham” intended to “harm OpenAI’s business by forcing the company to divert resources.”
In the court filing, OpenAI notes that “Meta’s communications with other bidders, or internal communications, including those reflecting discussions with Musk or other bidders, would also shed light on the motivations for the bid.”
The legal filings from both sides are filled with dramatic allegations.
Musk claims that Altman and the other founders “made a ‘fool’ of Musk” by “preying on Musk’s humanitarian concern about the existential dangers posed by artificial intelligence.”
OpenAI, on the other hand, argues that Musk “could not tolerate seeing such success for an enterprise he had abandoned and declared doomed,” and is now “willing to go to great lengths to mislead the public about OpenAI’s business so he can chip away at OpenAI’s head start.”
The disclosure of Musk’s approach to Zuckerberg adds significant weight to OpenAI’s claim that his actions are not about upholding a non-profit mission but are part of a calculated strategy to reclaim dominance in the AI field for xAI.
The AI talent war
The feud also puts a spotlight on the talent wars currently consuming the AI industry.
As a separate court filing revealed, Meta has been “spending heavily” in its quest to build its own “superintelligence.”
The company has offered staggering compensation packages, with some researchers reportedly receiving offers of £78m or more.
Musk has claimed that xAI is winning the talent war not with “insanely high” salaries, but with a “hyper merit-based” culture.
He has boasted on X that “many strong Meta engineers have and are joining xAI,” with his team successfully luring over a dozen researchers from Meta’s Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) team since January.
This frantic hiring spree, coupled with Musk’s audacious takeover attempt, points to a broader reckoning in the AI sector.
The battle is no longer just about who has the best model, but who can control the very infrastructure and talent that power the technology.
The legal and public battle between Musk and Altman is a test case for the future of AI.
It pits two of the industry’s most powerful and volatile figures against each other, with the outcome set to shape the balance of power for years to come.