Billionaire conflict resolution · Oct. 9, 2026

Sam Called Elon a Bully, Then Left the Collaboration Tab Open.

The AI industry’s two least normal ex-coworkers remain available for group projects.

Sam Altman seated with a microphone at OpenAI DevDay
TNW story preview · OpenAI / Kit Karzen
Freshness: This weekHow much this Zucks: 2/5Gateskeeping: 2/5MuskSamAOtherAIFeudOpenAI

Sam Altman told Vanity Fair that he thinks Elon Musk is a bully and that sometimes a bully needs to be hit back. He also said he would work with Musk, of course.

In a word-association round, Altman answered “Not nice” for Musk and “Pass” for Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, then stressed that OpenAI remains willing to collaborate with both.

Perfectly normal industry leadership: punch him in the nose, keep the shared calendar invite, ship the model before lunch.

Provenance

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