New Delhi: Tech mogul Elon Musk initiated a historic $97.4 billion bid with investors to buy OpenAI from its nonprofit arm as Musk vs. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s rivalry heats up. The offer is designed to return OpenAI to its original goals of a nonprofit research lab aimed at safely advancing powerful artificial intelligence.
On X (formerly Twitter), Altman publicly rejected Musk’s offer, instead lowballing the deal with a bid of $9.74 million to buy Twitter. Musk, who bought X for $44 billion in 2022, shot back, calling Altman a “Swindler.”
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, placed the bid to OpenAI’s board of directors. A group that includes Musk, his newly launched xAI, and other firms plans to buy OpenAI and return it to its nonprofit roots.
Musk and Altman started OpenAI in 2015 but disagreed over its direction. Musk quit the board in 2018 and then sued OpenAI, claiming the company moved away from being a research lab focused on nonprofit or public reasonable efforts.
ChatGPT turned OpenAI into a household name overnight and opened new revenue sources, but it also unleashed major ideological battles over the organization’s future. In late 2023, OpenAI’s nonprofit board dismissed Altman, who subsequently returned with a new board.
OpenAI announced plans to shift its positioning last year, and Musk didn’t like that. Eventually, the spat escalated into a court battle, where Musk sought an injunction to prevent Open AI from becoming a for-profit entity. OpenAI said that the change would balance the interests of shareholders, stakeholders, and the general public.
Musk launched xAI in early 2023 to claim a piece of the AI pie. Whether Musk and Altman will bury the hatchet or continue to feud remains to be seen, but the same can not be said of OpenAI.