Sam Altman asked Tesla for a deposit 7 years ago

ChatGPT’s creator publicly mocked Elon Musk and his company amid a lawsuit over OpenAI.

Sam Altman just announced the restructuring of OpenAI. Photo: Reuters .

On October 30, Sam Altman published an article on X titled “A story in 3 acts.” In the post, the OpenAI CEO shared a screenshot of an email from July 2018 confirming a $45,000 deposit for a second-generation Tesla Roadster.

He also attached a screenshot of a subsequent email, showing a request to cancel the order and refund $50,000 sent to Tesla. However, the email was returned. “I’m really excited about this car. And I understand the delay. But 7.5 years is too long to wait,” Altman wrote in a follow-up post the same day.

Nearly eight years ago, the new Roadster was one of Tesla’s most anticipated launches. In 2017, CEO Elon Musk declared it would be “the fastest production car ever made, hands down.”

He said the Roadster would be the first to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph (100 km/h) in less than 2 seconds, and the fastest to reach 100 mph (160 km/h) in 4.2 seconds. Production of the new model was originally scheduled to begin in 2020, but has been delayed several times.

Sam Altman’s email demanding money from Tesla. Photo: X.com.

During a meeting with investors in October 2024, Musk said Tesla was finalizing the Roadster’s design, but the company remained focused on its core mission of a sustainable energy future.

“We are still working on this car, but it has to take a backseat to projects that have a bigger impact on the world. So thank you to all the customers who have been patiently waiting for the Tesla Roadster,” Musk said.

Altman’s sarcastic move toward Musk comes as the two are locked in a lawsuit over OpenAI, the company they both co-founded in 2015. Musk was one of the first funders but left the board in 2018.

Since then, the Tesla CEO has repeatedly criticized Altman’s management of OpenAI. In February 2024, he filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, accusing the company of violating its nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft. He withdrew the lawsuit in June 2024, but refiled it in August of the same year.

In November 2024, Musk’s lawyers filed a court request to block OpenAI from converting to a for-profit company, a request that OpenAI dismissed as “completely baseless.”

“I used to see him as an incredible hero, a gem of a human being. But now, my feelings are different,” Altman said of Musk in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

On October 28, OpenAI announced that it had completed its restructuring. As part of the change, the nonprofit OpenAI Foundation will oversee a new “public interest” company called OpenAI Group PBC. According to Reuters , the company is aiming to go public at a valuation of $1 trillion .