Tesla CEO Elon Musk is arguably the harshest critic of Microsoft and OpenAI’s multi-billion-dollar partnership. After stepping down from the ChatGPT maker’s board in 2018, the billionaire has filed two lawsuits against the AI firm, citing “a stark betrayal of its founding mission” as it aims to evolve into a for-profit venture amid immense pressure from investors.
“In reality, however, OpenAI, Inc. has been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company in the world: Microsoft. Under its new board, it is not just developing but is actually refining an AGI to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity. This was a stark betrayal of the Founding Agreement.”
Elon Musk
More recently, he filed another lawsuit against OpenAI, citing involvement in racketeering activities, with his lawyer blatantly indicating that the previous suit lacks teeth.
Following OpenAI’s GPT-5 launch, Elon Musk warned that “OpenAI is going to eat Microsoft alive” while responding to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s post on X announcing the launch of the advanced model across the company’s tech stack, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot, GitHub Copilot, and Azure AI Foundry.
However, Nadella seemingly brushed off Musk’s claims with the following statement:
“People have been trying for 50 years, and that’s the fun of it! Each day you learn something new, and innovate, partner, and compete. Excited for Grok 4 on Azure and looking forward to Grok 5!”
Interestingly, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman doesn’t seem to be fazed by Musk’s comments. Speaking to CNBC, the executive indicated:
“You know, I don’t think about him that much. I thought he was just, like, tweeting all day [on X] about how much OpenAI sucks, and our model is bad, and, you know, [we’re] not gonna be a good company and all that.”
I honestly thought GPT-5 would end of Microsoft and OpenAI’s tech bromance
A few weeks prior to GPT-5’s launch, there had been a lot of hype and anticipation building with key figures like OpenAI CEO Sam Altman promising with “a high degree of scientific certainty” GPT-5 would be smarter than GPT-4, which he’d previously admitted “kind of sucks.”
As you may know, OpenAI has been under immense pressure to evolve into a for-profit company or risk losing funding, outsider interference, and hostile takeovers.
However, multiple reports suggested that Microsoft (its largest investor with a $13.5 billion stake) was holding back the transition plans in a bid to protect its best interests. “Holding out is Microsoft’s nuclear option,” added an OpenAI insider.
This stirred up tension between the tech companies, but perhaps more concerning, OpenAI is reportedly getting ready to move to court over anticompetitive business practices.
However, Microsoft indicated that it was ready to walk away from the high-stakes negotiations and ride out the rest of the partnership through 2030. A separate report showed that OpenAI was getting ready to prematurely declare AGI (artificial general intelligence) to sever its ties with Microsoft, cutting its access to its tech and flagship AI models.
Last week, Sam Altman indicated that he was scared of GPT-5, citing that the model’s advanced capabilities were outpacing oversight. While AI shows great promise, it hasn’t unlocked levels that surpass human cognitive capabilities, but the hype around GPT-5 alluded to as much.
It’s now been a little over 24 hours since GPT-5 shipped, and going by the posts shared across social media, users are less than impressed with its capabilities. Some users have indicated that OpenAI’s decision to deprecate GPT-5’s predecessors was miscalculated, citing that the model has degraded ChatGPT’s user experience, which is reportedly rife with bugs and glitches.
