The escalating feud between Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took a dramatic turn on Monday as Altman responded to Musk’s $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI with a counter-offer of his own: a tongue-in-cheek proposal to purchase Twitter, now X, for $9.74 billion.
The exchange follows a report by the Wall Street Journal that a consortium led by the Tesla CEO had offered $97.4 billion for the non-profit that controls OpenAI, marking the latest attempt by Musk to steer the artificial intelligence startup away from its for-profit trajectory.
Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it X.
‘No, thank you’: Altman’s snarky rebuffal on Musk’s platform
He said in a post on Musk-owned X, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want”.
Altman conveyed to OpenAI staff that the company’s board of directors intends to unequivocally reject Musk’s “supposed bid,” according to a report by The Information on Monday.
Musk’s motives: a return to OpenAI’s non-profit roots
Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit, but left before the company took off.
He founded the competing AI startup xAI in 2023.
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.
The rivalry between Musk and Altman, who initially collaborated to establish OpenAI, stems from fundamental disagreements over the company’s direction and its transition to a for-profit entity.
Musk resigned from OpenAI’s board in 2018, marking a significant turning point in their relationship.
Musk recently criticized a $500 billion OpenAI-led project announced by President Trump at the White House.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of tech and social media company X, is a close ally of President Donald Trump.
He spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump, and leads the Department of Government Efficiency, a new arm of the White House tasked with radically shrinking the federal bureaucracy.
Legal challenges and accusations of betrayal
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.
ChatGPT’s rise and internal strife
The explosive success of ChatGPT two years ago catapulted OpenAI into the global spotlight and generated a substantial revenue stream.
However, it also intensified internal conflicts regarding the organization’s future and the development of advanced AI technologies.
In late 2023, OpenAI’s non-profit board briefly fired Altman, before reinstating him days later with a newly constituted board.
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