Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI, publicly aired his frustrations with Tesla late Thursday, sharing his attempt to cancel a Roadster reservation made more than seven years ago.
In an X post labeled “A tale in three acts,” Altman displayed email correspondence showing he placed a $45,000 reservation deposit for a Tesla Roadster in July 2018.
The emails reveal his recent request for a refund after what he characterized as an extended wait, followed by a delivery failure notification indicating the address “[email protected]” could not be reached.
Altman requests in the email for a $50,000 refund — $5,000 above what he paid in 2018.
“I really was excited for the car! And I understand delays. But 7.5 years has felt like a long time to wait,” Altman wrote in a follow-up post, which has reached over 3 million views as of early Friday.
The post marks the latest salvo in an escalating rivalry between Musk and Altman.
Years of Mounting Tensions
The relationship has deteriorated markedly since Musk departed OpenAI’s board in 2018, with the company citing potential conflicts of interest with Tesla‘s AI initiatives.
What began as a business disagreement has evolved into a public feud characterized by pointed accusations and personal attacks.
Musk has repeatedly referred to Altman as “Scam Altman” over a dozen times on X, the social media platform he acquired in 2022 for $44 billion.
In August, Musk escalated his rhetoric following controversy over ChatGPT’s handling of political queries.
When a screenshot circulated showing ChatGPT declining to write arguments favoring Donald Trump while providing responses supporting Kamala Harris, Musk wrote on X: “Scam Altman lies as easily as he breathes.”
That same day, after Altman accused Musk of manipulating X “to benefit himself and his own companies and harm competitors and people he doesn’t like,” Musk responded with further derision.
“The immensity of the irony of Scam Altman complaining about ‘suppression’ on this platform while simultaneously getting millions of views is too much to bear,” he wrote.
The Roadster’s Troubled History
The Tesla Roadster, announced as the company’s flagship sports car in 2017, has become emblematic of Tesla’s ambitious promises and subsequent delays.
Tesla collected reservation deposits from thousands of customers, with reports suggesting the company required $50,000 upfront for standard reservations and $250,000 for Founders Series editions.
The company has offered minimal public updates on production timelines in recent years.
Despite the prolonged delays, Tesla has shown renewed activity around the Roadster program in recent weeks.
Earlier this week, the company posted a job listing for a Manufacturing Engineer focused on concept development and battery manufacturing specifically for the vehicle.
The posting, first noticed by Tesla shareholder Sawyer Merritt, states that the role will “take large scale manufacturing systems for new battery products and architectures from the early concept development stage through equipment launch, optimization and handover to local operations teams.”
The company described it as “an exciting opportunity to work directly on the central challenges for the all-new Roadster product architecture while still in its early development stages.”
The job listing follows comments from Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen, who reaffirmed just last week that an unveil event for the new Roadster remains scheduled for later this year.
AI Competition Intensifies
The personal animosity between Altman and Musk unfolds against a backdrop of fierce competition in artificial intelligence.
Musk’s xAI, founded in July 2023, positions itself as a direct competitor to OpenAI, which Musk co-founded in 2015 before his departure.
xAI has raised billions in funding and launched Grok, a chatbot integrated into X Premium.
The competitive dynamics have intensified as OpenAI has emerged as the world’s most valuable private company, with recent estimates placing its valuation at $500 billion.
SpaceX, another Musk venture, ranks second at $400 billion.
Earlier this month, Musk commented on the rankings with characteristic skepticism: “The OpenAI valuation seems high.”
The billionaire has also attacked Altman over compensation arrangements.
Last January, responding to a Reuters report that OpenAI planned to remove nonprofit control and grant Altman equity, Musk called him a liar.
“Altman literally testified to Congress that he wouldn’t get OpenAI compensation and now he wants $10 billion! What a liar,” Musk wrote.
Musk has also pursued legal action against OpenAI, filing and later withdrawing a lawsuit that alleged the company had strayed from its original nonprofit mission.
