Sam Altman and Elon Musk have been bickering in public over the last few years, but Altman had looked to smooth things over in private in 2023.
Text messages exchanged between the two tech titans on February 18, 2023, reveal a starkly different dynamic than their current public feud. In the messages, Altman appears conciliatory and even admiring toward Musk, despite brewing tensions over OpenAI’s direction.
“You’re my hero, tough when you attack OpenAI in public,” Altman wrote to Musk in the private exchange. The message suggests that even as their relationship was fraying, Altman was attempting to maintain a personal connection with his former co-founder, expressing admiration while gently acknowledging the public criticism.
“i remember seeing you in a tv interview a long time ago (maybe 60 minutes?) where you being attacked by some guys, and you said they were heroes of yours and it was really tough.
well, you’re my hero and that’s what it feels like when you attack openai. totally get we have some screwed some stuff up, but we have worked incredibly hard to do the right thing, and i think we have ensured that neither google nor anyone else is on a path to have unilateral control over AGI, which i believe we both think is critical,”Altman had texted Musk on 18th February 2023.
“I hear you and it is certainly not my intention to be hurtful, for which I apologize, but the fate of civilization is at stake,” Musk had replied.
“I agree with that, and i would really love to hear the things you think we should be doing differently/better,” Altman replied. “It’s also not clear to me how the attacks on twitter help the fate of civilization, but that’s less important to me that getting to the right substance.
also, i checked with our team on recruiting from tesla. we really are doing very little relative to the size of the company, but i will make sure we don’t hurt tesla, i obviously think it’s a super important company,” he added.
The texts paint a picture of two individuals still trying to navigate a complicated professional and personal relationship, even as their companies were beginning to diverge into direct competition. At the time of these messages, ChatGPT had been released just three months earlier and was already reshaping the AI landscape, while Musk had begun laying the groundwork for what would become xAI.
From Allies to Adversaries
The friendly tone of the 2023 texts stands in sharp contrast to the venomous public exchanges that have characterized their relationship in recent years. Musk and Altman co-founded OpenAI together in 2015, with Musk providing substantial initial funding and lending his considerable reputation to help the startup attract top engineering talent. However, disagreements over governance and funding strategy led to Musk’s departure in 2018.
The relationship deteriorated further after OpenAI created a for-profit arm and partnered with Microsoft in 2019, a move that Musk claims amounted to being swindled out of his rightful stake in what has become a company valued at over $400 billion. Musk has since launched multiple lawsuits against OpenAI and created xAI as a direct competitor.
A War of Words
The public attacks between the two have grown increasingly personal and bitter. In January 2025, when OpenAI announced the $500 billion Stargate Project to build AI infrastructure, Musk immediately questioned whether the funding was real. “They don’t actually have the money,” he posted on X, claiming SoftBank had less than $10 billion secured for the project.
Altman fired back with apparent sarcasm: “I genuinely respect your accomplishments and think you are the most inspiring entrepreneur of our time.” He then took a harder line, challenging Musk’s figures and adding pointedly, “I realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you’ll mostly put America first”—a reference to Musk’s advisory position with President Trump.
The exchanges have devolved into schoolyard-level insults. In August 2025, when Musk accused Altman of lying about X’s algorithm, Altman responded with “skill issue”—internet slang suggesting Musk lacked the competence to make his posts go viral. He then challenged Musk to sign an affidavit that he’d never manipulated X’s algorithm to benefit his companies.
Personal Attacks Escalate
The barbs have grown more cutting as the stakes in the AI race have intensified. Musk has branded Altman “Scam Altman” and called him a “swindler.” In response, Altman has questioned Musk’s mental state and happiness. “Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity, I feel for the guy. I don’t think he’s like a happy person,” Altman said in a February 2025 Bloomberg interview after Musk offered to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion.
Altman has also characterized Musk as vindictive and jealous. “Elon is definitely did a lot to help OpenAI in the early days, I’m very grateful,” he said on a December 2024 podcast. “But he’s also clearly a bully, and he’s also someone who clearly likes to get in fights. Right now it’s me. It’s been Bezos, Gates, Zuckerberg, lots of other people.”
The Stakes Couldn’t Be Higher
The bitter rivalry between Musk and Altman represents more than just a personal falling out—it reflects the enormous stakes in the race to develop artificial general intelligence. Both men lead companies at the cutting edge of AI development, with OpenAI’s ChatGPT and related models competing directly against Musk’s xAI and its Grok chatbot.
The 2023 text messages serve as a poignant reminder of how quickly relationships can deteriorate when billions of dollars and world-changing technology are involved. What began as a partnership to develop safe AI for the benefit of humanity has transformed into one of the technology industry’s most acrimonious feuds, with two of the most influential figures in AI now locked in a battle that shows no signs of cooling down.