Elon Musk told Sam Altman 'you then stole all of Apple's phone technology' in a post on X at 6:24 a.m. on Sunday, 12 July 2026, the sharpest line yet in a weekend of open insults between the two most closely watched figures in artificial intelligence. The timing gives the row an edge beyond ego, because both men are now selling to the public: SpaceX shares began trading only weeks ago, and OpenAI has filed confidentially for a listing of its own.
The fuse was lit on Friday 10 July, when Apple sued OpenAI, alleging that the ChatGPT developer used job interviews and departing staff to harvest hardware secrets for its planned consumer devices. More than 400 former Apple employees now work at OpenAI, a tally attributed to the complaint itself. OpenAI has not issued a public response to the claims.
