Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and the world’s wealthiest individual, has proposed a $97.4 billion offer to acquire OpenAI. This move intensifies the ongoing power conflict between Musk and OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, regarding the future of technology. The consortium making the offer includes Musk’s xAI, investment firm Vy Capital, and Hollywood mogul Ari Emanuel.
This marks the latest and most aggressive attempt to take control of OpenAI, a company he helped found back in 2015, but had to leave in 2018 because of some internal conflicts and the company’s direction. However, experts believe that it is highly unlikely that this deal will go forward as most of the board members are closely aligned with Altman, who hilariously dismissed Musk’s proposal. In an X post, Altman said, “No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” To this, Musk replied with just one word, “Swindler”.
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Musk’s offer can also complicate OpenAI’s intentions to secure $40 billion in funding from SoftBank. The Japanese multinational investment holding company has valued the private AI company at around $300 billion, making OpenAI one of the most valuable private companies alongside SpaceX and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.
Elon is suing OpenAI, asserting it has deviated from its initial nonprofit mission. His lawyer contends that if OpenAI intends to transition to a for-profit entity, it must justly compensate its nonprofit aspect by relinquishing control over such a significant technology. Musk wants to buy a small nonprofit entity with only two employees and $22 million in assets, but it legally controls OpenAI. That’s why Musk and his investors are willing to pay billions for it. Only time will tell if the deal will come to fruition or not.
