‘Not For Sale’: Sam Altman’s Jab At Elon Musk After Tesla CEO Offers To Acquire OpenAI- wna24
Washington DC: A war of words has erupted between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk after the Tesla CEO made a massive $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI’s assets. In response, Altman swiftly rejected the offer taking a jibe at Musk, saying OpenAI is “not for sale”. He even accused the SpaceX founder of acting out of insecurity. He spoke out against rival Elon Musk a day after rejecting a seismic deal.
In an interview with a foreign media, Altman took a jab at Musk, saying, “Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity. I feel for the guy. I don’t think he’s a happy person.” He also stated that Musk’s offer is just a tactic to “mess with us” and slow OpenAI down.
Musk’s bid, made through a group of investors, aims to acquire OpenAI’s assets and return the company to its open-source, safety-focused roots. However, Altman is not having it, and his response in a post on X was scathing, saying, “No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Meanwhile, retaliating to the remark, Elon Musk called Altman a “swindler.”
The takeover attempt comes as OpenAI pursues a $40 billion funding round led by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank that would value the company at up to $300 billion. The company is also working to spin out its nonprofit arm, which currently controls the organisation. If completed, this deal would place OpenAI among the most valuable private companies globally, alongside Musk’s SpaceX and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, according to reports by foreign media.
Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit before departing in 2019. He has since filed multiple legal complaints arguing that OpenAI betrayed its original mission by creating a for-profit subsidiary and partnering with Microsoft.
OpenAI dismissed Musk’s claims as baseless.
According to the New York Post, Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff said that Musk had secured backing from several prominent investors, including venture firms such as Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC, Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, and Vy Capital, as well as Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel.
In a statement, Musk said it was “time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” the publication reported.
The Wall Street Journal first reported news of the offer. Meanwhile, The New York Times, citing a source familiar with OpenAI’s response, reported that the company has not yet reviewed Musk’s bid.