Apple sues OpenAI, sparks a slanging match—Musk blasts Altman for fraud

Author: Bao Yilong; Source: Wall Street Insights

The back-and-forth feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman has escalated again, with both of their AI companies releasing flagship new models in the same week—making the rivalry especially explosive.

On July 11, Musk posted on the X platform, accusing OpenAI CEO Sam Altman of “taking fraud to a whole new level,” pointing to OpenAI’s business conduct toward users and customers.

Altman immediately fired back, implying that Musk was peddling the concept of “short-term space data centers” to public-market investors.

Musk then retaliated, saying Altman not only “stole an open-source AI charity,” but—amid the Apple lawsuit against OpenAI—was also accused of “stealing Apple’s mobile phone technology,” and mocked the idea that he needs to seek approval from a parole officer to travel.

The showdown unfolded in the same week that OpenAI released GPT-5.6 and SpaceXAI released Grok 4.5. The two products directly clashed head-on in the AI agent track, giving the online spat even more market appeal.

Musk strikes first; Altman responds with a jab at the space data centers

According to Musk’s July 11 post on X, he went after Altman in blunt, hard-hitting terms. Altman reposted the thread and responded:

Dude, you’re the one selling short-term space data centers to public-market investors.

Musk then hit back again, saying these space data centers “will start flying next year,” and sarcastically suggesting that if Altman’s “parole officer” approves it, perhaps he could come visit.

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

What’s next you’re planning to do? It’s hard to top this.

Musk’s reference to “Apple technology” is directly tied to Apple’s recent lawsuit against OpenAI.

On Friday, Apple filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of California federal court, alleging that OpenAI intentionally induced Apple employees to leak information, components, drawings, and other materials related to products that had not yet been released, to support its plan to develop its own hardware devices.

Apple demanded that OpenAI immediately stop the related conduct, destroy all proprietary materials involved, and redesign the upcoming products to ensure they contain no Apple technology.

OpenAI responded that it has no interest in other companies’ trade secrets and is still focused on building innovative technology.

This lawsuit is expected to profoundly affect the direction of the partnership between the two companies. OpenAI has long provided key technical support for Apple’s Apple Intelligence platform and the Siri voice assistant. The two companies’ partnership was formally announced two years ago at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

GPT-5.6 vs Grok 4.5: both flagship models take the stage together

This week, OpenAI and SpaceXAI respectively rolled out their latest flagship models, directly setting up a face-off.

OpenAI launched GPT-5.6, while SpaceXAI released Grok 4.5. Both products are positioned as AI agents—agentic models that can autonomously handle multi-step tasks. In terms of performance positioning, each has different strengths:

• GPT-5.6 shines in broad reasoning, business workflows, and network security;

• Grok 4.5 is more efficient in autonomous programming and developer workflows, and its usage cost is lower than GPT-5.6.

However, in capability areas such as abstract reasoning, the OpenAI model still leads Grok.

For investors and enterprise users, the differentiated positioning of the two products means the best choice depends on the specific use case. Enterprises seeking all-around reasoning capabilities may lean toward GPT-5.6, while developers who prioritize cost-efficiency and code automation may be more inclined toward Grok 4.5.