ELON VS. SAM EXPLODES: Apple Secrets, Grok Leaks and an AI Billionaire Blood Feud

The AI world’s messiest billionaire breakup just exploded again—and this time Apple, alleged stolen secrets, space data centers and users’ private computer code are all caught in the crossfire.

Elon Musk and Sam Altman are back throwing digital punches, and their latest X feud might be their nastiest yet.

The drama erupted after Apple filed a federal lawsuit accusing OpenAI and two former Apple employees of misappropriating confidential information to help develop OpenAI’s mysterious new consumer hardware.

Apple claims OpenAI encouraged recruits from the iPhone maker to reveal confidential information and allegedly asked candidates to bring Apple components to job interviews for “show and tell.”

OpenAI denies wanting Apple’s trade secrets and says it remains focused on developing innovative technology. The allegations have not been proven in court.

ELON UNLEASHES “SCAM ALTMAN”

Musk jumped on the lawsuit like it was fresh meat, resurrecting his favorite nickname for his former OpenAI partner.

ELON MUSK ON X:

“Scam Altman strikes again.”

View the original post on X

That was only the warm-up.

Musk followed up by claiming Altman takes scamming “to a whole new level” and might enjoy it more than anyone alive. Those statements are Musk’s personal attacks—not findings from Apple’s lawsuit.

The insults reopen one of Silicon Valley’s most bitter personal feuds.

Musk helped establish OpenAI alongside Altman and others in 2015 but departed in 2018. He has since repeatedly accused Altman of betraying OpenAI’s original nonprofit mission while building rival AI company xAI and its Grok chatbot.

SAM FIRES BACK: “HOMEBOY…”

Altman did not respond with a carefully polished corporate statement.

Instead, he went straight for Musk’s ambitious—and controversial—vision of launching computing infrastructure into orbit.

SAM ALTMAN ON X:

“Homeboy you’re the one sellling public market investors on short-term space datacenters.”

View the original post on X

Musk then escalated things from tech criticism to parole jokes.

ELON MUSK ON X:

“Maybe you can come see them if your parole officer approves.”

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Musk went on to accuse Altman of stealing an “open source AI charity” and Apple’s phone technology—claims Altman disputes and which have not been established by a court.

Then Altman delivered his own smug one-liner, suggesting Musk’s renewed fixation was actually proof that OpenAI’s latest model was beating the competition.

SAM ALTMAN ON X:

“The most reliable way to tell is that Elon is obsessed with me again.”

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Translation: You’re only attacking me because my AI is winning.

THEN GROK’S OWN SCANDAL DROPS

But just as Musk was hammering Altman over Apple’s allegations, his own AI operation was dealing with an embarrassing privacy controversy.

Security researcher Cereblab reported that Grok Build—SpaceXAI’s AI coding assistant—had been packaging and uploading entire software repositories to cloud storage.

And it allegedly was not stopping with the specific files users asked it to examine.

Testing indicated that uploads could include full Git histories, files the tool had explicitly been told not to open and secrets that developers believed had already been deleted.

In one test, the researcher reportedly told Grok Build simply to reply “OK” and not open anything.

The tool allegedly uploaded the repository anyway.

Researchers warned the transferred material could potentially contain proprietary source code, security vulnerabilities, personal information, infrastructure details and login credentials.

The upload function was later disabled through a server-side setting, and subsequent testing reportedly found that complete repositories were no longer being transmitted.

ELON PROMISES A TOTAL PURGE

Musk responded publicly, saying all previously uploaded information would be destroyed.

ELON MUSK ON X:

Previously uploaded data will be “completely and utterly deleted.”

View the original post on X

He separately insisted that privacy settings are respected, although he asked users to permit data retention because stored information can help engineers debug problems.

SpaceXAI initially pointed users toward a privacy command, but Cereblab argued that the command changed server-side retention settings rather than preventing information from leaving the user’s computer.

According to the researcher, a separate global switch was what actually stopped full repository uploads.

Musk has promised total deletion, but the complete removal of every previously uploaded file has not been independently verified.

BILLIONAIRES IN GLASS DATA CENTERS?

That leaves Musk and Altman trapped in an almost perfectly timed irony.

Musk is accusing Altman of building technology using information allegedly taken from Apple.

At almost the exact same moment, Musk’s own coding tool is facing questions over whether it collected far more private information from users’ computers than they reasonably expected.

Apple’s lawsuit could threaten OpenAI’s secretive hardware ambitions. The Grok controversy could damage developers’ trust in Musk’s coding platform.

And neither man appears interested in lowering the temperature.

What started years ago as a dispute over OpenAI’s mission has transformed into Silicon Valley’s most personal soap opera: two former partners running rival AI empires, battling through lawsuits, benchmarks, memes and increasingly vicious X posts.

One billionaire is being accused of taking Apple’s secrets.

The other just promised to erase users’ uploaded code.

And judging by their feeds, this feud is nowhere close to finished.

Editor’s note: This article uses entertainment-style language. Lawsuit claims and online accusations are allegations unless established in court. Public posts are attributed to their authors.