Sam Altman wants his money back.
The OpenAI CEO published a post on X titled “A story in three acts” on Thursday. In the post, Altman shared a screenshot of a July 2018 email confirming a $45,000 deposit for the second-generation Tesla Roadster.
He also attached a screenshot of a follow-up email sent on Thursday requesting a cancellation of the order and a $50,000 refund, only for the email to bounce back.
“I'm really excited about this car! I understand the delay. But 7.5 years of waiting feels like a long time,” Altman said in a follow-up post on Thursday.
Representatives for Altman and Tesla did not respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.
The new Roadster is one of Tesla's most talked-about new products.
In 2017, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the Roadster “will be the fastest production car ever.”
“This will be the first time a car breaks two seconds from 0 to 60,” Musk said. “It will be the fastest to 100 mph: 4.2 seconds.”
Production of the new Roadster was originally scheduled to begin in 2020, but has been repeatedly delayed.
Musk told investors during an October 2024 earnings call that Tesla was finalizing the Roadster's design but that the company was focused on its core mission of enabling a “sustainable energy future.”
“We're working on this, but it has to lag behind things that have a more serious impact on the world. So, thank you to all of our long-suffering Tesla Roadster deposit holders,” Musk said.
As of press time, Musk and Tesla had not yet responded to Altman.
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The continuation of the feud between Altman and Musk
Altman's subtle dig at Musk comes as they launch a legal battle against OpenAI, the company they co-founded in 2015. Musk was one of OpenAI's early financial backers but left the company's board of directors in 2018.
Musk has since publicly criticized Altman's leadership of OpenAI.
In February 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit against Altman and OpenAI. Musk accused OpenAI of violating its nonprofit mission when it partnered with Microsoft. He withdrew the lawsuit in June 2024 and refiled it in August of the same year.
Then, in November, Musk's lawyers filed for an injunction against OpenAI to stop its transformation into a for-profit company. An OpenAI representative told Business Insider that Musk's ban was “completely baseless.”
“For a long time, I've viewed him as an incredible hero, a great gem of humanity. Now I feel differently,” Altman said of Musk in an interview with former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson that aired on Sept. 10.
“There's something incredible about him and I'm grateful for a lot of what he does. I think he has a lot of qualities that I don't appreciate,” Altman continued.
OpenAI announced on Tuesday that it has completed its restructuring. As part of the changes, OpenAI's nonprofit arm, the OpenAI Foundation, will now oversee a new public benefit corporation, OpenAI Group PBC.
According to Reuters, the company is seeking to go public at a valuation of $1 trillion.