OpenAI is receiving a high-profile takeover bid from an old acquaintance. Elon Musk has $100 billion left to thwart the plans of his former associate Sam Altman.
It’s time again for Elon Musk’s weekly stunt. The top executive of SpaceX, Tesla, X and now government official, has raised $97.4 billion with a consortium of investors to take over part of OpenAI. Musk has set his sights on keeping the nonprofit branch of OpenAI.
“It is time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, security-focused force for good that it once was. We will make sure that happens,” Musk told the Wall Street Journal through his lawyer Marc Toberoff. OpenAI chief Sam Altman has already indicated very quickly that he does not want to sit down at the negotiating table with Musk.
Open feud
Musk and Altman are old friends of each other, and not in a good way. They co-founded OpenAI as a nonprofit a decade ago in 2015. However, both men disagreed on what course the organization should take. That resulted, after an internal power struggle, in Musk’s departure in 2019.
That feud is not yet forgotten and forgiven. Although Musk is no longer actively involved in OpenAI, that doesn’t stop him from publicly criticizing Altman’s policies. OpenAI has been shifting more and more in recent years toward a for-profit company in order to extract big money from Microsoft and other investors, and that apparently doesn’t sit well with Musk.
The two men argue about just about everything they can’t agree on. Musk also openly criticized his best friend Donald Trump’s ambitious Stargate project, which wants to invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure domestically. OpenAI is one of the project’s backers, but Musk does not believe Altman’s shoulders are strong enough for that and called him a “scammer.
Looking for pennies, but not Musk’s
With this aggressive bid, he wants to retake control of the non-profit branch of OpenAI and merge it with his own company x.AI. Musk sees himself backed by some influential investment firms. Altman replicates via x with a heartfelt middle finger, saying he “wants to acquire Twitter for $9.74 billion”: a generous offer is for what the platform is still worth thanks to Musk’s antics.
OpenAI is permanently seeking additional capital to continue funding the high cost of developing its AI models. Microsoft is showing itself to be a generous sponsor, but Japan’s Softbank also pulled out its moneybag. After a $6.6 billion investment late last year, OpenAI is worth $157 billion. Musk is clearly the last person whose pennies Altman wants to accept.