Steve Granitz/Getty Images; Denis Balibouse/REUTERS
Sam Altman says he doesn’t think about Elon Musk that much. That didn’t stop the OpenAI CEO from getting into another war of words with his long-term rival.
The two billionaires traded accusations late Monday on X after Musk threatened to sue Apple over what he claims is preferential treatment for OpenAI’s ChatGPT in the App Store rankings.
“Apple is behaving in a manner that makes it impossible for any AI company besides OpenAI to reach #1 in the App Store, which is an unequivocal antitrust violation,” Musk wrote. “xAI will take immediate legal action.”
Altman turned the antitrust accusation back on Musk, citing his control of X.
“This is a remarkable claim given what I have heard alleged that Elon does to manipulate X to benefit himself and his own companies and harm his competitors and people he doesn’t like,” Altman responded, linking to a 2023 Platformer article titled “Yes, Elon Musk created a special system for showing you all his tweets first.”
Altman added that “Lots has been said about this” and that he hoped “someone will get counter-discovery on this” because he and “many others would love to know what’s been happening.”
Seven hours later, Musk took the exchange in a slightly different direction: having the biggest follower count.
“You got 3M views on your bullshit post, you liar, far more than I’ve received on many of mine, despite me having 50 times your follower count!” he posted.
You got 3M views on your bullshit post, you liar, far more than I’ve received on many of mine, despite me having 50 times your follower count!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 12, 2025
On Tuesday, Altman responded using the A-word: affidavit.
“Will you sign an affidavit that you have never directed changes to the X algorithm in a way that has hurt your competitors or helped your own companies?” Altman posted, adding that he would “apologize if so.”
Altman separately replied that Musk getting fewer views on some of his posts was a “skill issue,” before following up with “or bots.”
Battle of the chatbots
The back-and-forth adds another round to the ongoing rivalry between the former OpenAI co-founders.
Last Friday, Altman appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” to discuss OpenAI’s GPT-5 model, which launched Thursday. When asked about Musk’s criticisms, Altman appeared to shrug them off.
“You know, I don’t think about him that much,” said Altman, a line that’s eerily similar to a memefied quote from “Mad Men” (“I don’t think about you at all”).
Altman’s apparent indifference came one day after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced GPT-5 would be integrated across Microsoft platforms, prompting Musk to reply on X that “OpenAI is going to eat Microsoft alive.”
Altman didn’t bite on that one. But he said during the CNBC interview that Musk seemed to spend his time “tweeting all day about how much OpenAI sucks, and our model is bad.”Musk and Sam Altman, both co-founders of OpenAI, are racing to create ever-smarter AI. Last Thursday, Musk posted that “Grok 4 Heavy was smarter 2 weeks ago than GPT5 is now and G4H is already a lot better. Let that sink in.”
“OpenAI will just stay focused on making great products,” Altman wrote Monday after posting three times about Musk.
The two have been sparring since 2018, when Musk left the board of OpenAI, which they had co-founded together in 2015 as a nonprofit AI research lab.
Since then, Musk has become one of Altman’s loudest critics. In February 2024, he filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing it of betraying its nonprofit mission through its Microsoft partnership. He withdrew the suit in June, only to refile it two months later.
Representatives for Musk and Altman could not immediately be reached for comment.
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