New Delhi (Desk) | Aug 08, 2025 : In a dramatic moment for the tech world, Tesla and xAI founder Elon Musk fired a direct shot at Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, warning that OpenAI could "eat Microsoft alive" following the global rollout of GPT-5 on Thursday. The statement coincided with OpenAI's decision to make ChatGPT-5 free to all users, a move that has intensified the AI race.

GPT-5, developed by OpenAI under the leadership of Sam Altman, is being hailed as the most advanced language model to date. Microsoft, a key partner and investor in OpenAI, has already integrated the model into its flagship products—Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot, Azure AI Foundry, and more.

Microsoft Welcomes GPT-5 Integration
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella celebrated the milestone in a public statement:

“Today, GPT-5 launches across our platforms... It’s the most capable model yet from our partners at OpenAI, bringing powerful new advances in reasoning, coding, and chat, all trained on Azure.”

Reflecting on the rapid growth of generative AI, Nadella added,

“It’s only been two and a half years since Sam [Altman] and I launched GPT-4 in Bing. The pace of progress is only accelerating.”

Nadella emphasized excitement for future releases from other players too, saying:

“Each day you learn something new and innovate, partner, and compete. Excited for Grok 4 on Azure and looking forward to Grok 5!”

Musk Fires Back with Grok
Musk, whose company xAI is behind the Grok series of AI models, countered Nadella's optimism by doubling down on his claim that Grok 4 Heavy remains the most powerful AI model available today. He has long voiced concerns about OpenAI's ambitions and its collaboration with Microsoft, having once co-founded the organization before parting ways.

While praising GPT-5’s abilities, Musk expressed competitive tension by asserting OpenAI’s momentum could eventually outpace Microsoft's ability to stay in control of the innovation it helped fund.

Sam Altman: GPT-5 Feels Like a PhD-Level Expert
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman spoke candidly about the experience of testing GPT-5. On a recent podcast, he said the model flawlessly solved an email challenge he had personally struggled with.

“It made me feel useless,” Altman said. “It was a weird moment—kind of like watching a new species being born.”

He described GPT-5’s capabilities as both “scary” and “transformative,” comparing the AI breakthrough to the Manhattan Project in terms of impact, though not destructiveness. Altman said GPT-5 is a “significant step” toward artificial general intelligence (AGI) and called it “clearly a model that is generally intelligent.”

Comparing model evolution, Altman said:

GPT-3 felt like a high school student,

GPT-4 like a college student,

GPT-5 is now at a PhD level.

What's New in GPT-5?
OpenAI has touted GPT-5’s major advances in autonomous agent tasks, reasoning, and "vibe coding", which allows for auto-generating applications with minimal input. The model is also described as being more trustworthy, with improved understanding and contextual performance.

Cursor AI, an AI-powered code editor, confirmed full integration of GPT-5, calling it “the most intelligent coding model” they’ve tested—available to users for free, “for the time being.”

As the AI arms race accelerates, one thing is clear: GPT-5 is changing the game, and industry giants like Musk and Nadella are ready for a high-stakes showdown.