Elon Musk Accuses Sam Altman Of Stealing A Charity And Apple’s Technology, While Vowing That SpaceX’s AI1 Satellites Will Fly Next Year But That Altman Will Be In Jail By Then
Rohail Saleem•Jul 11, 2026 at 09:02pm EDT
Elon Musk was never the gracious sort to let an opportunity to take a jab against his fiercest opponent pass him by. And now that Apple has lobbed a figurative thermonuclear warhead on OpenAI in the form of a damning lawsuit, Musk is using the ensuing social media buzz to land a few choice punches on his nemesis number one, OpenAI's Sam Altman.
Elon Musk now believes SpaceX will start deploying AI1 satellites by next year, but wonders if Sam Altman would be able to see the launch, strongly implying that OpenAI's CEO would be in jail by then
While the tale of the legendary animosity between Elon Musk and Sam Altman is long and sordid, the latest bout of verbal jousting between the two began in the wake of a damning lawsuit filed by Apple against OpenAI, accusing it of stealing its proprietary technology, circuit designs, and component architecture for a slew of upcoming consumer-geared AI devices.
Apple has tallied that over 400 of its former employees have ended up at OpenAI, with the iPhone maker's former VP of Design, Tang Tan, reportedly playing a pivotal role by encouraging Apple employees vying for a stint at OpenAI to bring actual Apple hardware components and samples for "show and tell" sessions.
Of course, this development has come as a manna from heaven for Elon Musk, who then jabbed that Altman had taken scamming to a "whole new level." Altman then responded with a riposte, suggesting that Musk was "sellling public market investors on short-term space datacenters."
Never one to leave a jab unanswered, Musk then tore a strip out of Altman by declaring:
"We start flying them next year. Maybe you can come see them if your parole officer approves.
After stealing an open source AI charity, you then stole all of Apple’s phone technology! Wow.
What do you plan for an encore? That’s tough to beat."
Basically, Musk has just declared that SpaceX's ambitious satellite-based data center project will enter its deployment phase next year, while strongly suggesting that Sam Altman would be in jail by then.
For the benefit of those who might not be aware, SpaceX recently unveiled its first dedicated satellite design for AI compute. Dubbed the AI1 satellite, it can support up to 150kW of peak compute payload, replete with liquid radiators, meteoride shielding, a centralized compute module, and deployable solar arrays. These satellites will be manufactured at SpaceX's Gigasat facility in Texas.
Coming back, as mentioned earlier, the bad blood between Musk and Altman is one for the history books. Their feud can be traced to the inception of OpenAI, when Musk was the primary financier of the-then non-profit. Unsatisfied with the pace of development at the non-profit, Musk tried to take over the control of OpenAI in 2018 but was rebuffed by Altman and the board. Musk then departed the non-profit in a fit of rage.
Later, once Sam Altman began advocating for converting OpenAI into a for-profit enterprise, Musk took Altman and OpenAI to court, where the defendants were able to claim a victory on technical grounds, with the court ruling that Musk had waited too long to file his claims.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025.
As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover.
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