Last Updated:
Elon Musk and a group of investors previously launched an effort to purchase OpenAI after the Tesla CEO criticised the AI company for abandoning its open-source and non-profit mission.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. (Reuters)
Tech billionaire Elon Musk and a group of investors launched a $97.4 billion bid to purchase the non-profit arm of artificial intelligence company OpenAI, adding fuel to a bitter rivalry between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
However, Altman publicly rejected the offer on X an doffered to buy Twitter instead. “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” he said.
Musk, who bought X under its former moniker for $44 billion in 2022, replied to the post by simply writing: “Swindler.”
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Musk ignited a new front in his war with the ChatGPT-maker by leading an investment group offering $97.4 billion for the non-profit that controls OpenAI.
Musk attorney Marc Toberoff said he submitted the bid to OpenAI’s board of directors, according to the report. Musk, his own AI startup, xAI, and a consortium of investment firms want to take control of the ChatGPT maker and revert it to its original charitable mission as a nonprofit research lab, according to Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff.
Elon Musk vs Sam Altman
Musk and Altman, who together helped start OpenAI in 2015 and later competed over who should lead it, have been in a long-running feud over the startup’s direction to become a for-profit business since Musk resigned from its board in 2018.
Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the company last year, first in a California state court and later in federal court, alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab that would benefit the public good by safely building better-than-human AI.
The sudden success of ChatGPT two years ago brought worldwide fame and a new revenue stream to OpenAI and also heightened the internal battles over the future of the organization and the advanced AI it was trying to develop. Its non-profit board fired Altman in late 2023. He came back days later with a new board.
Last year, OpenAI announced plans to formally change its corporate structure, which caught the ire of Musk. Lawyers for OpenAI and Musk faced off in a California federal court last week as a judge weighed Musk’s request for a court order that would block the ChatGPT maker from converting itself to a for-profit company.
The shift would require the company to balance the interests of shareholders, stakeholders, and the public in a tilt away from non-profit, OpenAI said. Meanwhile, Musk established xAI in early 2023 to have a foothold in the AI industry.
- Location :
Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)
