“I have different feelings now…” OpenAI’s Sam Altman on why his opinion changed about Elon Musk

Elon Musk vs Sam Altman

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has opened up about how his views on Elon Musk have shifted over the years. Speaking to former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson in an interview posted on YouTube, Altman said that while he once saw Musk as “an incredible hero,” he doesn’t hold him in the same light anymore.

“For a long time, I looked up to him as an incredible hero, a great jewel for humanity. I have different feelings now,” Altman said. “There are things about him that are incredible, and I’m grateful for a lot of things he’s done. There’s a lot of things about him that I think are traits I don’t admire.”

Altman and Musk were once collaborators. The two co-founded OpenAI in 2015 with the goal of building safe and transparent artificial intelligence. But the partnership didn’t last. Musk left the board in 2018, and the relationship between the two tech leaders has since turned sour.

The disagreements go beyond personal feelings. Musk has been one of OpenAI’s fiercest critics in recent years, accusing the company of straying from its nonprofit mission after forming a deep partnership with Microsoft. In February this year, he even filed a lawsuit against Altman and OpenAI, later withdrawing it in June before refiling in August. Musk mocked the company in the process, at one point writing on X: “Change your name to ClosedAI and I will drop the lawsuit.”

Money has also been a point of contention. Musk has claimed he contributed around $100 million to OpenAI in its early days. OpenAI, however, has said the figure was under $45 million.

The feud hasn’t stopped Musk from pursuing his own ambitions in artificial intelligence. Last year, he launched xAI, which has already raised billions of dollars in funding and is building its own chatbot called Grok. The startup is reportedly valued at $50 billion, while OpenAI’s most recent funding round put its valuation at around $300 billion.

Altman, meanwhile, suggested that Musk’s decision to leave OpenAI may have been tied to doubts about the company’s future. “He didn’t think we were on a trajectory to be successful. Then, we did OK. I think he got understandably upset. I would feel bad in that situation,” he told Carlson.

For now, the two remain at odds—once allies, now rivals—shaping the future of AI from opposite sides.