Elon Musk has two harsh words for OpenAI founder Sam Altman

2025-06-19 20:53:10

Elon Musk has two harsh words for OpenAI founder Sam Altman originally appeared on TheStreet.

President Donald Trump is not the only public personality whom Elon Musk has had a public feud with. The billionaire tycoon has also engaged in a feud with Sam Altman.

Musk is the owner of the automotive and clean energy company Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA), social media platform X, and space technology company SpaceX, making him the wealthiest man in the world. Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, the AI company behind the popular ChatGPT bot.

Both the entrepreneurs have hailed cryptocurrencies.

Musk’s Tesla holds more than $1 billion in Bitcoin on its balance sheet, and the tycoon has often talked about Dogecoin in positive terms. In fact, the acronym of the department he led in Washington, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is the same as the ticker of the popular meme coin.

Altman is also a fan of cryptocurrencies. In October 2023, he praised Bitcoin in an episode of the Joe Rogan podcast:

“I think this idea that we have a global currency that is outside of the control of any government is a super logical and important step on the tech tree.“

Altman even launched the Worldcoin cryptocurrency in 2019.

Both Musk and Altman are also among the OpenAI co-founders. Musk even served on its board of directors from its launch in December 2015 until his resignation in 2018. Musk, who also runs an AI company, xAI, has frequently criticized OpenAI’s shift from a non-profit to a “capped-profit” model under Altman’s leadership.

As the so-called “The OpenAI Files” came out on X, Musk blasted the ChatGPT chief as “Scam Altman.”

AI models such as OpenAI have been criticized for their centralized models, with decentralized AI, supported by crypto payments, being touted as a possible challenger to the hegemony of the likes of OpenAI.

The AI tokens market cap stood at $25 billion at the time of writing.

Elon Musk has two harsh words for OpenAI founder Sam Altman first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 19, 2025

This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 19, 2025, where it first appeared.

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