OpenAI CEO makes sarcastic comment when Elon Musk wants to buy the company for $97.4 billion
In response to the offer to acquire OpenAI for $97.4 billion, the company’s CEO Sam Altman made a sarcastic comment instead of a refusal.
Billionaire Elon Musk announced that he has made an offer to buy OpenAI, the “father” of the famous ChatGPT software, for $ 97.4 billion. This offer was sent to OpenAI’s board of directors yesterday, February 10.
Elon Musk said this deal will be backed by a powerful “shark” team, including famous investors such as investment group Valor Equity Partners, venture capital firm 8VC, media mogul Ari Emanuel…
Elon Musk said the deal would help “get OpenAI back on track.”
“It’s time to get OpenAI back on track with its open source model, focused on safety for the public good, as it has always been. We’re going to make sure that happens,” attorney Marc Toberoff, Elon Musk’s representative, told The Wall Street Journal.
The acquisition offer comes as the company is restructuring its operations to find profitability. OpenAI is in the process of raising an additional $40 billion in investment from the “sharks” to help the company continue to grow.
Notably, OpenAI is currently the head of Stargate, a multinational project in cooperation between OpenAI and SoftBank (Japan), along with two Korean technology companies, SK Hynix and Samsung, with a commitment to invest 500 billion USD in the next 4 years to develop AI to counter China’s influence in the field of artificial intelligence.
In response to the news that Elon Musk wanted to buy OpenAI, the company’s CEO Sam Altman made a sarcastic comment on his personal X page: “No thanks, but we’ll buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Sam Altman’s sarcastic comment is like a rejection of Elon Musk’s offer to buy OpenAI.
Previously, Elon Musk spent $44 billion to buy social network Twitter in October 2022. Sam Altman seems to be trying to satirize Elon Musk that the $97.4 billion price to buy OpenAI is too cheap.
Although not listed on the stock exchange, OpenAI is currently valued at around $300 billion.
The Complicated Relationship Between Elon Musk and OpenAI
Elon Musk was one of the co-founders of OpenAI in 2015, along with Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever and several others. OpenAI was originally a non-profit organization with the goal of developing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity.
Musk was not only a co-founder but also played a key role in providing initial funding , contributing more than $100 million in the early stages to get the company off the ground.
The original vision of Musk and the other co-founders was to create an AI research organization that was open, transparent, and focused on safety.
However, in February 2018, Elon Musk left OpenAI due to disagreements over the company’s direction. While Musk wanted to maintain a non-profit and completely open-source nature, OpenAI’s leaders wanted to develop the company in a for-profit model.
After his departure, Elon Musk’s relationship with OpenAI and Sam Altman personally became strained. Musk has repeatedly publicly criticized OpenAI for betraying its original mission when it was first founded.
In July 2023, Elon Musk founded his own artificial intelligence company called xAI, as a move to compete with OpenAI in the race to develop artificial intelligence.
In early 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Sam Altman, accusing them of violating an original agreement to develop AI for the public good.
Now, Elon Musk’s move to spend money to buy OpenAI has further increased the tension between the billionaire and the former company he helped found.
