"You will be the most hated men in America." That's what Elon Musk reportedly texted to OpenAI president Greg Brockman and CEO Sam Altman after requesting a legal settlement, according to claims OpenAI made public on May 4, 2026.
The texts surfaced as part of the ongoing litigation between Musk and OpenAI, which Musk co-founded and left in 2018. He filed suit against the company in 2024, arguing it had abandoned its nonprofit mission by pursuing commercial interests. OpenAI has consistently pushed back on that framing, and the newly revealed messages are part of their effort to paint Musk's legal action as coercive rather than principled.
The sequence matters: according to OpenAI, Musk first sought a settlement, was rebuffed, and then sent the threatening messages. That ordering contradicts the image of a disinterested whistleblower acting out of concern for AI safety. Instead, OpenAI is arguing that Musk's lawsuit is a pressure campaign by a rival who now runs his own AI company, xAI.
None of this will be resolved quickly. The case involves foundational questions about whether OpenAI's pivot to a capped-profit structure violated its founding agreements - questions that courts have been slow to untangle. What's clear is that both sides are now treating this as a full-contact fight, not just a legal dispute. Musk's lawyers have not yet publicly responded to the specific text message claims.