Contained in the rotunda at Donald Trump’s second inauguration the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, went down the road shaking palms with every tech billionaire who confirmed as much as kiss the ring — all besides Elon Musk.
It was an odd slight from Kushner to cross over the person who simply spent $290 million of his personal cash to assist get Trump elected, whereas the others — Google’s Sundar Pichai, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — had historically backed Democrats or leaned with Silicon Valley’s liberal tradition.
Two days after the inauguration, Musk’s very public budding bromance with the Commander-in-Chief was dealt one other blow when the president introduced an bold $500 billion AI knowledge heart deal, Stargate, in a three way partnership with tech big OpenAI — icing out Musk’s personal budding AI firm.
“He hates one of many folks within the deal,” Trump bluntly informed reporters of Musk throughout a press convention about Stargate.
Trump was referring to OpenAI boss Sam Altman. Musk, boss of Tesla and Area X, instantly took to the social media platform he owns, X, to name Altman a “swindler” and a “liar” and claimed Stargate didn’t have the funds it presupposed to.
One tech trade insider who spoke to The Publish steered Musk’s whole election 12 months blitz — which noticed him develop into a MAGA famous person in a single day via his get-out-the-vote operations and high-profile appearances with Trump — had much less to do with politics and extra to do with currying favor away from Altman.
A former affiliate of Musk agrees that he by no means appeared political earlier than 2024: “Politics is a backstabbing world, and I used to be actually shocked that Elon acquired concerned in it.
“The Elon I knew was very libertarian, a live-and-let-live type of perspective, not significantly proper or left. I believe among the politics with him are simply who he’s round.”
Maybe he didn’t understand how entrenched Altman is with the Trumps. Jared’s brother, Joshua, via his Thrive Capital is certainly one of OpenAI’s extra important monetary backers, making a sequence of investments between 2022 and 2026 totaling nicely over $2 billion.
And as soon as Musk had a short fall out with Trump in June 2025, Altman was fast to step in and by September was accompanying the president to the UK to debate AI initiatives.
Except for the politics, insiders say Musk doesn’t have time for individuals who aren’t hands-on like he’s.
“He doesn’t like folks [like Altman] who don’t have a hand in constructing stuff. The legal professionals, the recruiter-types, the businesspeople, the posers and pontificators, he positively seems to be down his nostril at them.”
“He’s going to see somebody like [Altman] as a crucial evil [in Silicon Valley].”
These near Altman paint him in a greater gentle, as a tycoon whose superpower lies in salesmanship and expertise scouting, fairly than the technical facets of the AI world.
“You most likely may have mentioned the identical about Steve Jobs, proper?” former OpenAI security researcher Scott Aaronson informed The Publish.
“That he was merely a supervisor and never a tech man. There’s an extended historical past of such people who find themselves in a position to put collectively and encourage a crew that may have a huge effect.”
“I assume everybody would agree that [Altman] just isn’t a deep technical thinker. He’s clearly very clever, you may speak to him about any technical factor he’ll pay attention and ask good questions,” added Aaronson.
Musk and Altman had initially labored collectively. Musk, then on his option to changing into the richest man on this planet, was an early donor and co-founder of OpenAI in 2015. He claims he put in $38 million in seed cash and recruited high expertise for the challenge, which was then a non-profit.
What occurred subsequent is on the heart of the lawsuit which can come to a head in an Oakland, Calif., federal courtroom later this month.
Musk is suing OpenAI, Altman, co-founder Greg Brockman and the corporate’s greatest investor, Microsoft, which owns a 27% stake within the firm.
He alleges within the lawsuit he was “manipulated” by “Altman’s “lengthy con” and OpenAI has breached its founding nonprofit mission — to develop AI for humanity’s profit and never for revenue — by shifting to a for-profit construction and partnering intently with Microsoft.
In 2018, after Altman named himself president of OpenAI, Musk publicly stepped down from its board of administrators, stating a battle of curiosity as he was beginning his personal AI operation for his automobile firm Tesla’s autonomous driving program. Since that point he’s additionally launched his personal business enterprise, Grok AI, which companions with X.
5 months earlier than his departure, Musk wrote in an e mail to OpenAI brass: “Guys, I’ve had sufficient […] Both go do one thing by yourself or proceed with OpenAI as a nonprofit” including, “I’m simply being a idiot who is basically offering free funding so that you can create a startup.”
Sources informed The Publish Musk feels he’s discovered himself within the place of getting funded his personal AI competitors — additional fueling his animosity towards Altman.
“Elon values loyalty above all,” a former shut affiliate of Musk informed The Publish, including he’s not somebody you wish to be on the incorrect facet of: “There are the 2 faces of Elon, or possibly it’s the moods of Elon. The nice Elon and the unhealthy Elon. I believe he’s basically individual, however he positively has some unhealthy moods.”
Within the lawsuit, Musk calls for the corporate return as a lot as $150 billion in “ill-gotten” positive factors to OpenAI’s nonprofit arm, fireplace CEO Altman and president Brockman and unwind their for-profit restructuring.
He has mentioned any damages he’s awarded will go to charity. Neither he nor Altman responded to The Publish’s requests for remark.
OpenAI has known as Musk’s lawsuit “baseless,” a “sham” and a “harassment marketing campaign.”
In January, the corporate despatched a letter to traders warning that it anticipated Musk to make “intentionally outlandish, attention-grabbing claims” forward of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit additionally claims fraud, saying Musk was deceived by Altman and Brockman about making the corporate for-profit and that they and different traders have enriched themselves on the expense of Musk.
Though OpenAI is valued at over $850 billion, it solely has an annual income of round $20 billion. The corporate’s chatbot, ChatGPT, boasts 900 million weekly customers, solely 50 million of that are paid subscribers.
That doesn’t cease Altman residing a billionaire life-style. The founder, who has one little one by surrogacy with software program engineer husband Oliver Mulherin, revels within the excessive life—proudly owning a $27 million San Francisco mansion; a $16 million Napa Valley ranch; a 22-acre, $49 million Hawaii compound; a $250 million superyacht with a helipad and no less than two hypercars, together with a $20 million McLaren F1.
In distinction Musk, a father of 14, is famously unmaterialistic and socially awkward.
He not too long ago bought off all his property, believing possessions “weigh you down,” and has been identified to sleep on workplace flooring and borrowed sofas.
“The one cause he cares about cash is to the extent that it permits him to do the issues he needs to do. He’ll spend cash for privateness or consolation, however you’ll by no means hear him bragging a few $100 million Hawaii compound, or no matter,” the ex-associate of Musk mentioned.
“Every part he does is geared towards going to Mars,” with Area X.
At that firm Musk sat in a cubicle fairly than a elaborate nook workplace and rolled as much as work every morning in a crimson Tesla Mannequin 3 — not even his automobile firm’s spiffiest mannequin, recalled AI researcher and former SpaceX worker Vincent Peters to The Publish.
“Not like most tech entrepreneurs, Elon’s not going to present you a hearth chat about work that another person on the firm has performed,” mentioned Peters.
“He’s been round endlessly and nobody has accused him of being untrustworthy.”
Others describe Musk as “unpredictable” and “audacious,” and, as Altman himself put it at one level final 12 months “Elon busts up with all people. That’s what he does.”
When the billionaire technocrats duke it out within the courts their legal professionals will paint them every in a flattering gentle and reward their innovation and mind. However not everybody feels that by being wealthy, it means they’re as cerebral as they’re made out to be.
“I don’t wish to ascribe a level of ten-dimensional chess to those folks which may not be there. You see them on social media simply reacting to stuff. To what diploma are they really gaming this out just a few strikes sooner or later? And to what diploma are they actually simply reacting like a toddler?” questioned Aaronson.
