Musk slams Microsoft's OpenAI support as 'insanely suicidal'
What's the story
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has criticized Microsoft's support for OpenAI as "insanely suicidal." The comment comes after Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, hinted that his company would directly compete with Microsoft. Altman's statement suggested that traditional office productivity tools like Docs, Slides, email, and Slack could be replaced by new technology.
Competitive stance
Musk's response to Altman's comments
Responding to Altman's comments, Musk reiterated his long-standing criticism of Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI. He said, "As I was saying, OpenAI will compete directly with Microsoft." This was echoed by a user who shared a video of Altman and an old tweet from Musk predicting that "OpenAI is going to eat Microsoft alive." To this, Musk replied, "At this point, it's insanely suicidal for Microsoft to continue supporting OpenAI."
Financial backing
Microsoft's investment in OpenAI
Microsoft started investing in OpenAI in 2019, pouring in a total of $11.6 billion by the end of September 2025. The company's stake in the public benefit corporation is now worth $135 billion, or about 27% of the firm on an as-converted diluted basis. Despite their long-standing partnership, both companies are competing across several segments of the AI market.
AI developments
Competing across AI market
Microsoft has used OpenAI's models for AI capabilities in its flagship products. However, in August, the tech giant announced it was publicly testing a homegrown AI model. This could improve its Copilot assistant for consumers. Meanwhile, Altman recently hinted at OpenAI's plans to start selling compute capacity directly to other companies and people, potentially competing with cloud technology giants like Google and Amazon.