OpenAI vs Elon Musk: Drama’s Peaking

We’ve officially entered the billionaire slap-fight era of tech history. OpenAI just countersued Elon Musk, and things are getting spicier than a GPT prompt gone rogue. The company, which Musk helped co-found back in 2015, is accusing him of straight-up trying to hijack their AI tech for personal gain.

“Elon's nonstop actions against us are just bad-faith tactics to slow down OpenAI and seize control of the leading AI innovations for his personal benefit.”

That’s a hell of a statement. And it’s not just posturing—OpenAI is done playing nice. They’re claiming Musk wanted to merge OpenAI with Tesla as a for-profit venture under his control, and when the board didn’t hand him the keys to the kingdom, he rage-quit.

“He tried to seize control of OpenAI and merge it with Tesla as a for-profit—his own emails prove it. When he didn’t get his way, he stormed off.”

Ouch. These aren't just vague jabs, either. OpenAI’s digging through receipts, including a whole timeline they dropped last December that (according to them) shows Musk literally building the for-profit structure he’s now suing them over. Back then, they say, he bailed when he didn’t get majority control. Now? He’s running a rival company and asking the courts to hit the brakes on OpenAI’s progress.

Image Credit: Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO | Getty Images, Anadolu Agency

To be fair, Musk has been loud about his belief that OpenAI has lost its way. He argues the company has ditched its original mission to develop safe, ethical AI for humanity and has instead turned into a mega-corporate for-profit machine. But what is OpenAI’s view? That’s rich coming from a guy who wanted to privatize it himself and now runs a direct competitor.

“Elon is undoubtedly one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time. But these antics are just history on repeat—Elon being all about Elon.”

Tell us how you really feel.

Now we’re headed for a legal showdown. A California court has locked in March 2026 for the trial, and Musk’s request to slap an injunction on OpenAI? Denied. The judge even expects Musk to take the stand, which—let’s be real—will be must-see TV for tech nerds.

Meanwhile, Musk isn’t backing down. He recently dropped a casual $97.4 billion bid to buy OpenAI outright, which Altman instantly rejected by cheekily offering to buy X (formerly Twitter) for $9.7 billion instead. Not petty at all.

“Had OpenAI's Board genuinely considered the bid, as they were obligated to do, they would have seen just how serious it was,” said Musk’s lawyer.

And while they’re flinging lawsuits and passive-aggressive soundbites, both sides are still talking about saving humanity with AI. All this boardroom brawling would be a lot easier to take seriously if it didn’t look exactly like two tech titans battling over bragging rights and billions.

Ari Lightman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon, summed it up pretty bluntly:

“This is about control. This is about revenue... all this talk of AI principles takes a backseat with all this rigmarole over control and monetization.”

That might be the realist take of the whole circus. It’s especially funny when Grok—Musk’s LLM from xAI—jumps in with what might be the most grounded take of all:

"The evidence shows valid gripes on both ends, but this public brawl’s a distraction. AI’s supposed to help humanity, right? They’d do better teaming up than tearing each other down. Legal battles won’t fix the future—collaboration might."

So yeah—while two of the richest dudes on the planet are busy playing king of the AI hill, their chatbots are out here sounding like the adults in the room. 2025, everyone.