Elon Musk Warns “OpenAI Will Eat Microsoft Alive” as GPT-5 Launches

On the same day OpenAI unleashed its much-anticipated GPT-5 model for free to all users, Tesla CEO Elon Musk delivered a sharp warning to Microsoft’s Satya Nadella: “OpenAI will eat Microsoft alive.”

Microsoft, a major investor and strategic partner of OpenAI, marked the release with a high-profile announcement. GPT-5 has been integrated into Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, Azure AI Foundry, and other products. Nadella hailed it as “the most capable model yet” from OpenAI, bringing breakthrough advances in reasoning, coding, and conversational AI.

“The pace of progress is only accelerating,” Nadella said, recalling that just two and a half years ago, he and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman unveiled GPT-4 for Bing. “I can’t wait to see what developers, enterprises, and consumers will do with this latest breakthrough.”

But Musk, who backs rival AI platform Grok, didn’t miss the chance to stir the competitive waters. While praising innovation, he claimed Grok 4 Heavy remains “the most powerful AI,” and hinted that Microsoft could eventually be overshadowed by its own AI partner.

Nadella responded with good humor: “People have been trying for 50 years… partner and compete. Excited for Grok 4 on Azure and looking forward to Grok 5!”

The launch also caught the attention of other tech players. Cursor AI, an AI-powered coding platform, confirmed it has integrated GPT-5, calling it “the most intelligent coding model” their team has tested.

OpenAI’s Sam Altman, speaking about GPT-5’s capabilities, admitted the model left him feeling “useless” after it instantly solved a complex problem he had struggled with. Comparing the moment to the Manhattan Project, Altman said GPT-5 could have “permanent effects” on humanity. However, this time it will not be destructive, but transformative.

“GPT-3 was like a high school student, GPT-4 like a college student, and GPT-5 like a PhD-level expert,” Altman explained.

The new model introduces advanced autonomous “agent” tasks and “vibe coding.” It is the ability to generate full applications on demand, with improved trustworthiness and accuracy.