Elon Musk accused Altman of “taking fraud to new heights”, Altman sarcastically mocked the concept of “space data centers” being sold by Musk, who retaliated by claiming that Altman “stole the open-source AI charity” and Apple’s phone technology. This Friday, Apple has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI regarding this matter.

Written by: Bao Yilong

Source: Wall Street Journal

The war of words between Musk and Sam Altman has escalated again, coinciding with both parties’ AI companies releasing flagship new models in the same week, intensifying the competitive atmosphere.

On July 11, Musk posted on the X platform, accusing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman of “taking fraudulent behavior to a whole new level”, targeting OpenAI’s business dealings with users and clients.

Altman quickly responded with a sarcastic jab, mocking Musk for selling the concept of “short-term space data centers” to public market investors.

Musk retaliated, stating that Altman not only “stole an open-source AI charity” but was also accused of “stealing Apple’s phone technology” just as the Apple lawsuit against OpenAI broke out, sarcastically suggesting that he would need to ask his parole officer for permission to go out.

This exchange occurred in the same week that OpenAI released GPT-5.6 and SpaceXAI launched Grok 4.5, with both products directly competing in the AI agent space, making this war of words even more noteworthy in the market.

Musk Fires Shots, Altman Retorts About Space Data Centers

According to Musk’s post on July 11 on the X platform, he aimed his comments squarely at Altman with blunt and assertive language. Altman retweeted the post with a response:

Bro, you are the one selling short-term space data centers to public market investors.

Musk quickly fired back, stating that these space data centers “will start flying next year,” and sarcastically added that if Altman’s “parole officer” approves, maybe he could come for a visit.

Musk further accused Altman of “first stealing an open-source AI charity, then stealing all of Apple’s phone technology” and questioned:

What’s next? It’s hard to top that.

The issue Musk referred to as “Apple technology” is directly related to the recent lawsuit Apple filed against OpenAI.

The Wall Street Journal mentioned that Apple filed a lawsuit on Friday in the Northern District of California federal court, accusing OpenAI of intentionally soliciting Apple employees to leak information, components, blueprints, and other materials related to unreleased products, to serve their plans for self-developed hardware.

Apple is demanding that OpenAI immediately cease such actions, destroy all involved proprietary materials, and redesign upcoming products to ensure that they do not contain any Apple technology.

OpenAI responded by stating that they are not interested in the trade secrets of other companies and remain focused on creating innovative technologies.

This lawsuit will profoundly affect the trajectory of cooperation between the two companies. OpenAI has long provided key technological support for Apple’s Apple Intelligence platform and Siri voice assistant, with their partnership officially announced two years ago at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

GPT-5.6 Faces Off Against Grok 4.5, Two Flagship Models Compete

This week, OpenAI and SpaceXAI successively released their latest flagship models, leading to a direct confrontation.

OpenAI launched GPT-5.6, while SpaceXAI released Grok 4.5, with both products positioned as AI agents capable of independently handling multi-step tasks. In terms of performance positioning, both products have their own strengths:

• GPT-5.6 excels in broad reasoning, commercial workflows, and cybersecurity;
• Grok 4.5 is more efficient in autonomous programming and developer workflows, with a lower usage cost compared to GPT-5.6.

However, in certain capability dimensions such as abstract reasoning, OpenAI’s model still leads over Grok.

For investors and corporate users, the differentiated positioning of these two products means that the choice depends on specific use cases. Companies seeking comprehensive reasoning capabilities may lean towards GPT-5.6, while developers focusing on cost-effectiveness and code automation may prefer Grok 4.5.