• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

2

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

3

The Supreme Court's birthright citizenship ruling hands the U.S. economy a $7.7 trillion win

1

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

2

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

3

The Supreme Court's birthright citizenship ruling hands the U.S. economy a $7.7 trillion win
TechOpenAI

Sam Altman calls Elon Musk a ‘bully’ who enjoys getting into fights with fellow billionaires

Sydney Lake
By
Sydney Lake
Sydney Lake
Associate Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
Sydney Lake
By
Sydney Lake
Sydney Lake
Associate Editor
Down Arrow Button Icon
December 20, 2024, 12:01 PM ET
Elon Musk and Sam Altman sitting in chairs
Elon Musk (left) cofounded OpenAI with Sam Altman in 2015.Michael Kovac—Getty Images for Vanity Fair
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.
  • Sam Altman called Elon Musk a “bully” for his continued criticism of and several lawsuits against OpenAI, the organization they cofounded in 2015. OpenAI released an extensive blog post on Dec. 13 to back up its claim that Musk always wanted OpenAI to be a for-profit organization.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the ongoing feud between Sam Altman and Elon Musk, the OpenAI CEO summarized it pretty succinctly, saying the Tesla CEO and world’s richest man is “clearly a bully.”

Recommended Video

Although Altman admits his cofounder “did a lot to help OpenAI in the early days,” he told the Free Press in an interview published Thursday that Musk is “also clearly a bully, and he’s also someone who clearly likes to get in fights.”

OpenAI did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for additional comment.

The overarching battle between these two billionaires stems from a fundamental disagreement over OpenAI’s company structure and control. Musk has on several occasions sued OpenAI, alleging the nonprofit he helped found cannot legally convert to a corporation without violating its original purpose: to benefit humanity as a whole by developing the world’s first artificial general intelligence (AGI).

However, OpenAI alleges Musk had long pushed for OpenAI to become a for-profit company. Musk also reportedly wanted OpenAI to become part of Tesla, which the company saw as a conflict of interest as the electric car company started increasingly using AI technologies in its products. 

“His own words and actions speak for themselves—in 2017 Elon not only wanted, but actually created, a for-profit as OpenAI’s proposed new structure,” according to an open letter published by OpenAI on Dec. 13, which includes screenshots, other documents, and a timeline of events involving Musk since 2015. “When he didn’t get majority equity and full control, he walked away [in 2018] and told us we would fail.”

Representatives of Musk through X and Tesla did not immediately respond to Fortune’s requests for comment.

OpenAI has since shifted to a split corporate structure, adding a for-profit arm in 2019 with a $1 billion investment from Microsoft. The goal of the partnership was to “democratize AI,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said at the time.

Amid the four lawsuits filed by Musk against OpenAI, there has been an extensive battle on social media. But Altman calls that “a little bit of a sideshow.” And instead of humoring Musk on X, Altman says OpenAI ignores a lot of what he says.

“We do not sit there and throw tomatoes back and forth on Twitter,” Altman told the Free Press. “The right thing for us to do is just keep doing incredible research.”

Musk has even gone so far as to allege, in one of his lawsuits against OpenAI, that Altman and Greg Brockman, another cofounder, “manipulated” him to help create the company. The lawsuit alleges Altman and others “intentionally courted and deceived Musk, preying on Musk’s humanitarian concern about the existential dangers posed by artificial intelligence.”

But despite all of the allegations and drama, Altman is seemingly brushing off Musk’s incessant posts on X and other criticisms about OpenAI, mostly because he’s not the first person Musk has regularly fought with.

“Right now, it’s me. It’s been Bezos, Gates, Zuckerberg, lots of other people,” Altman said in the interview. “And I think, fundamentally, this is about OpenAI doing really well. Elon cares about doing really well.” Currently, OpenAI is valued at $157 billion.

Meanwhile, Musk has launched his own AI startup, xAI, which is training its own large language model on X data. The value of xAI has more than doubled to $50 billion since it last raised money in May.

Despite the feud between Altman and Musk, Altman said he doesn’t think Musk will abuse his position by punishing OpenAI even though he’s become very close with President-elect Donald Trump, making him even more powerful than before.

“I think there are people who will really be a jerk on Twitter, who will still not abuse the system of a country they’re now in a sort of extremely influential political role for,” Altman said during the interview. “That seems completely different to me.”

About the Author
Sydney Lake
By Sydney LakeAssociate Editor
LinkedIn iconTwitter icon

Sydney Lake is an associate editor at Fortune, where she writes and edits news for the publication's global news desk.

See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Tech

How foodservice giant Sodexo is embracing AI and robotics to reshape the kitchen
NewslettersCIO Intelligence
How foodservice giant Sodexo is embracing AI and robotics to reshape the kitchen
By John KellJuly 1, 2026
14 hours ago
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei
AIAnthropic
Anthropic’s AI models are back online after a two-week government standoff—settling the company and administration into a fragile truce
By Tristan BoveJuly 1, 2026
14 hours ago
Nikesh Arora, chief executive officer at Palo Alto Networks
SuccessJobs
CEO of $248 billion cybersecurity company says workers are about to face a ‘Darwinian moment’ thanks to AI: Evolve or get cut
By Emma BurleighJuly 1, 2026
16 hours ago
Current price of Ethereum for July 1, 2026
Personal FinanceEthereum
Current price of Ethereum for July 1, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 1, 2026
18 hours ago
In this photo illustration, a Cisco logo is displayed on a smartphone with Artificial Intellingence (AI) symbols in the background.
AICFO Daily
Cisco is rolling out AI agents to every single one of its 90,000 employees
By Sheryl EstradaJuly 1, 2026
18 hours ago
senate
CommentaryCongress
One rare bipartisan AI bill is moving through Congress. Here’s why it deserves to pass
By Neil Björkman and Betsy BrewerJuly 1, 2026
20 hours ago

Most Popular

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
Big Tech
As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 1, 2026
24 hours ago
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
Success
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
By Sydney LakeJune 25, 2026
7 days ago
The Supreme Court's birthright citizenship ruling hands the U.S. economy a $7.7 trillion win
Newsletters
The Supreme Court's birthright citizenship ruling hands the U.S. economy a $7.7 trillion win
By Diane BradyJuly 1, 2026
22 hours ago
Current price of oil as of July 1, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 1, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 1, 2026
18 hours ago
Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
Success
Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
By Preston ForeJune 27, 2026
5 days ago
Elon Musk on MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion of her fortune: 'Sadly,' it makes the world a worse place
Success
Elon Musk on MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion of her fortune: 'Sadly,' it makes the world a worse place
By Sydney LakeJune 29, 2026
3 days ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.