How Elon Musk and Sam Altman went from besties to bitter rivals

Cnbc · May 18, 2026 · 1704 words · By Ashley Capoot; Lora Kolodny

Nonprofit vs. For-profit AI Development Corporate Governance and Ethics Interpersonal Conflict between Tech Leaders

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In December 2015, Elon Musk and Sam Altman sat together at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in San Francisco for an interview, publicly touting their new partnership as co-chairs of a fledgling artificial intelligence research lab.

Claims checked 21

Techniques found 2

Topics 3

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center86%

Right14%

7 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Why it matters

Musk was a multibillionaire due to his stake in Tesla, which had gone public five years earlier, and Altman was running famed startup incubator Y Combinator.

Common ground

The pair had been working closely that year on an AI initiative they hoped would prevent Google from establishing monopoly control over the powerful technology.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language, Name Calling / Labeling: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

Follow-up questions

What new context would change how readers understand this Nonprofit vs. For-profit AI Development story?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that Musk left the OpenAI board in 2018?
How does this story connect Nonprofit vs. For-profit AI Development with Corporate Governance and Ethics over the next few days?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/18/how-elon-musk-and-sam-altman-went-from-besties-t…

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 2 propaganda techniques in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

warning

Loaded Language 80% confidence

Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.

Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.

Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

warning

Name Calling / Labeling 100% confidence

Attaching a negative label to a person or group to reject them without evidence.

Why it matters: Recognizing name calling / labeling helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 21 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

schedule Pending 11

verified Verified By Reference 5

help Insufficient Evidence 2

check_circle Corroborated 2

info Single Source 1

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Claim 1: “Musk left the OpenAI board in 2018”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 2: “Zilis, who has four children with Musk”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

help

Claim 3: “the partnership began 11 years ago, in May 2015, when Altman emailed Musk asking if he thought it would be a good idea for Y Combinator to start a 'Manhattan Project for AI.'”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found in the provided search results to confirm the specific email from Altman to Musk in May 2015 regarding a 'Manhattan Project for AI'.

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Claim 4: “By August 2017, its systems were able to beat the world's top players of Dota 2”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 5: “Musk's SpaceX has a valuation of $1.25 trillion after merging with his AI lab, xAI, in February.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources, including a cross-reference from NYPost and other web results, report that SpaceX merged with xAI in February (2026 per one source) with a combined valuation of $1.25 trillion.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX has acquired his artificial intelligence business xAI, in a $1.25tn (£910bn) merger that consolidates part of Musk’s empire as SpaceX prepares to go public later t…
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/feb/02/elon-musk-sp…

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web search NEUTRAL — SpaceX has acquired xAI, forming one of the most ambitious, vertically integrated innovation engines on (and off) Earth → spacex.com/updates#xai-joins-spacex pic.x.com/el40rCUBGe.U.S. space stocks ris…
https://news.google.com/stories/CAAqNggKIjBDQklTSGpvSmMzUnZj…

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web search NEUTRAL — In February 2026, SpaceX completed the largest private merger in history by acquiring xAI, creating a combined valuation of $1.25 trillion. Most people are focused on the number.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dominick-mongelli-684a87121_t…

+ 1 more evidence source

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Claim 6: “Musk had demanded that Altman and other co-founders, including Brockman and Ilya Sutskever, make a list of employees and their key contributions, and fire everyone who didn't immediately make the grade”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 7: “OpenAI is now valued at over $850 billion”

SINGLE SOURCE

The provided evidence confirms OpenAI's structure and existence, but does not provide a specific current valuation figure of $850 billion.

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web search NEUTRAL — OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence (AI) research organization headquartered in San Francisco, consisting of a for-profit public benefit corporation (PBC) partially controlled by a nonprofit…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAI

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web search NEUTRAL — OpenOpenAI offers AI-powered solutions and tools for diverse applications, enhancing productivity and innovation.
https://www.open-openai.com/app

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web search NEUTRAL — 4 days ago · OpenAI seals deal in Malta to give all Maltese access to ChatGPT Plus U.S. artificial intelligence company OpenAI said on Saturday it had signed a deal with the government of Malta to giv…
https://www.reuters.com/technology/openai/

help

Claim 8: “Altman testified last week that he and his co-founders didn't make any commitments to Musk about the company's corporate structure.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found in the provided search results regarding Sam Altman's testimony from 'last week' about commitments to Musk.

verified

Claim 9: “X, also now owned by SpaceX”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia (X Corp.) explicitly states that X Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of xAI since March 28, 2025, and xAI is a subsidiary of SpaceX.

travel_explore

web search NEUTRAL — SpaceX and Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook and Goldman Sachs’s David Solomon are among the top business executives accompanying Trump on his visit. Advertisement. Musk, who also owns the social me…
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/14/who-are-the-us-ceos…

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web search NEUTRAL — Dragon capsule by SpaceX docking with the International Space Station on May 25, 2012—the first time a commercial spacecraft did so. SpaceX/NASA (A Britannica Publishing Partner). in full
https://www.britannica.com/money/SpaceX

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web search NEUTRAL — X Corp. is an American technology company headquartered in Bastrop, Texas. Established by Elon Musk in 2023 as the successor to Twitter, Inc., it is a wholly owned subsidiary of xAI since March 28, 20…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Corp.

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Claim 10: “OpenAI launched in December 2015, with Musk committing to fund the charity with up to $1 billion.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

verified

Claim 11: “Musk was a multibillionaire due to his stake in Tesla, which had gone public five years earlier”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia confirms Tesla is a public company. While the provided evidence doesn't explicitly state the IPO date, general knowledge and the context of the company's history as a public entity support the claim, though the specific 'five years' calculation is a simple date check against the 2010 IPO.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Tesla Autopilot, an advanced driver-assistance system ("ADAS") for Tesla vehicles, uses a suite of sensors and an onboard computer. It has undergone several hardware changes and versions since 2014, m…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Autopilot_hardware

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Tesla Cybertruck is a battery-electric full-size pickup truck manufactured by Tesla, Inc. since 2023. It was presented as a prototype concept in November 2019, with an angular design composed of f…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Cybertruck

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Tesla Semi is a battery electric semi-trailer truck built by Tesla, Inc. since 2022. The truck is powered by three motors, has approximately three times the power of a typical diesel semi truck, a…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Semi

+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

Claim 12: “Altman was running famed startup incubator Y Combinator.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia and multiple web sources confirm Sam Altman was the president/CEO of Y Combinator during that period.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — On November 17, 2023, OpenAI's board of directors ousted co-founder and chief executive Sam Altman. In an official post on the company's website, it was stated that "the board no longer has confidence…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_Sam_Altman_from_Ope…

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Samuel Harris Altman (born April 22, 1985) is an American entrepreneur who has been the chief executive officer (CEO) of the artificial intelligence company OpenAI since 2019. Altman attended Stanford…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Altman

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Y Combinator, LLC (YC) is an American technology startup accelerator and venture capital firm launched in March 2005 which has been used to launch more than 5,000 companies. The accelerator program st…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y_Combinator

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 13: “In January 2023, Microsoft pumped $10 billion into OpenAI”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 14: “Far from putting in $1 billion, his donations totaled around $38 million.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

verified

Claim 15: “Musk sued Altman and OpenAI in 2024 for allegedly violating their commitment to keep OpenAI as a nonprofit.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia (Musk v. Altman) and multiple news sources (The Guardian, other web results) confirm that Elon Musk filed a lawsuit in 2024 against Sam Altman and OpenAI regarding the breach of the nonprofit commitment.

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Musk v. Altman is an ongoing lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in which Elon Musk accuses OpenAI and its executives, including CEO Sam Altman, of viol…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musk_v._Altman

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI is a book by Karen Hao released on May 20, 2025. It focuses on the history of OpenAI and its culture of secrecy and devotion to the promise o…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_AI

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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The legal affairs of Elon Musk encompass the legal cases involving Elon Musk as the plaintiff, defendant, or concerning his companies.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_affairs_of_Elon_Musk

+ 3 more evidence sources

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Claim 16: “Zilis... resigned from the OpenAI board.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 17: “Musk, who sought as much as 90% ownership in a for-profit entity.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

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Claim 18: “in June 2017, when Tesla poached Andrej Karpathy, an AI researcher, from OpenAI.”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

check_circle

Claim 19: “In December 2015, Elon Musk and Sam Altman sat together at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in San Francisco for an interview, publicly touting their new partnership as co-chairs of a fledgling artificial intelligence research lab.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent sources (WIRED, Business Insider, and other web results) confirm that Elon Musk and Sam Altman appeared together as co-chairs of OpenAI at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in 2015.

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+ 3 more evidence sources

verified

Claim 20: “Their project, a nonprofit, was called OpenAI.”

VERIFIED BY REFERENCE

Wikipedia and multiple other sources explicitly state that OpenAI was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit organization.

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web search NEUTRAL — OpenAI was founded in 2015 in Delaware as a nonprofit. A for-profit subsidiary of the nonprofit was created in 2019, and a 2025 restructuring converted the subsidiary into a PBC that is 26% owned by t…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenAI

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web search NEUTRAL — OpenAI, founded in 2015, is an AI research lab developing safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) for humanity, with most research and patents publicly available. How did OpenAI evolve from nonprof…
https://www.webfx.com/blog/ai/what-is-openai/

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web search NEUTRAL — In 2015, OpenAI was a nonprofit research organization. It told the IRS in a filing for nonprofit status that its mission was to “advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit …
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/380117/openai-microsoft-s…

+ 1 more evidence source

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Claim 21: “In March 2023, he incorporated xAI”

PENDING

This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.