The long-running rivalry between Elon Musk and Sam Altman has officially entered its Tesla Roadster era. The two former OpenAI co-founders traded fresh blows on X after Altman shared a post about trying to cancel his Tesla Roadster reservation – and not getting his money back right away.
Altman posted screenshots of emails showing that he’d reserved a second-generation Roadster back in 2018, only to request a refund recently and have his message bounce. “I really was excited for the car,” he wrote. “And I understand delays. But 7.5 years has felt like a long time to wait.” It was a pretty mild jab, all things considered, but Musk saw an opening.
The Tesla Roadster, first announced in 2017, was supposed to be the ultimate electric supercar: all-wheel drive, lightning acceleration, and even a SpaceX-inspired “rocket thruster” package. Years later, though, it’s become something of a running joke among car enthusiasts and Tesla fans. Musk now says a “new version” of the Roadster will finally be revealed by the end of this year – though given Tesla’s track record, not everyone is holding their breath.
Instead of addressing the car delay, Musk went for something more personal. Quoting Altman’s post, he wrote, “You stole a nonprofit,” reviving one of his favorite accusations against OpenAI’s leadership. Musk has repeatedly claimed that Altman turned OpenAI away from its original nonprofit mission and into a profit-driven tech giant after he left the company. It’s the same complaint at the heart of Musk’s ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI and its recent spinoff, xAI.
Altman didn’t bite, but Musk wasn’t done. He followed up with another post suggesting that Altman was leaving out part of the story. “And you forgot to mention act 4, where this issue was fixed and you received a refund within 24 hours,” he wrote. “But that is in your nature.”
The exchange is the latest entry in a feud that’s grown more public and more personal with each passing year. What started as a difference in vision for AI development has turned into a full-blown power struggle playing out across X, corporate blogs, and court filings.
Musk’s latest point seems to be that while Altman can complain about a $50,000 refund, Tesla’s customer service came through faster than he let on. But in the bigger picture, it’s just another round in the tech world’s messiest soap opera – a spat between two billionaires who built the future of AI and now can’t stop subtweeting each other about it.