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Sam Altman waits 7.5 years for Tesla Roadster, now wants his $50,000 back
The final screenshot revealed that the Tesla email address which had originally confirmed his booking was no longer active.
The final screenshot revealed that the Tesla email address which had originally confirmed his booking was no longer active.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has revealed that he has been waiting seven and a half years for a Tesla delivery — and has now asked for his $50,000 reservation payment to be refunded.
In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter), Altman uploaded a series of email screenshots chronicling his long and ultimately fruitless wait for the Tesla Roadster, an all-electric supercar first announced in 2017. He captioned the post “A tale in three acts.”
A tale in three acts: pic.twitter.com/ClRZBgT24g
— Sam Altman (@sama) October 30, 2025
The first screenshot showed Tesla’s 2018 confirmation email stating, “We have successfully received your reservation payments. Your reservation is now paid in full.” The second image, dated 2025, was a follow-up from Altman requesting a refund: “Hi, I’d like to cancel my reservation. Could you please refund me the $50k?”
The final screenshot revealed that the Tesla email address which had originally confirmed his booking was no longer active.
Altman commented that while he had been enthusiastic about the car, the wait had grown excessive. He said he was “really excited for the car” and “understood delays,” but that “7.5 years has felt like a long time to wait.”
His post has since gone viral, amassing over 2.5 million views and sparking a wave of responses from Tesla enthusiasts and followers. Some urged him to hold off on cancelling, noting that Tesla’s chief designer recently confirmed that the Roadster will finally be unveiled in late 2025, with an expected 0–60 mph time of under two seconds, a 620-mile range, and optional SpaceX thrusters for one-second acceleration.
According to Tesla’s website, the Roadster is described as an “all-electric supercar” that “maximises the potential of aerodynamic engineering — with record-setting performance and efficiency.”
Despite the anticipation, Altman’s long wait — and now public request for a refund — has reignited discussion around Tesla’s repeated production delays for the long-promised model.
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