Elon Musk's OpenAI bid escalates war of words with Sam Altman
The Tesla and X CEO offered $97 billion for the artificial intelligence company.
Transcript:
Conway Gittens: Two bitter rivals are fighting again over the soul and the future of artificial intelligence. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has gathered together a group of his friends to make an unsolicited offer to buy OpenAI, the parent of ChatGPT. The price tag: $97.4 billion.
The offer received a quick rejection and a ding from OpenAI’s CEO. Sam Altman went directly to Musk’s own social media company X and posted this response: “No thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter, now X, back in 2022, but the value has plummeted since he took over.
Related: Elon Musk and Tesla have a big problem in China
There is no love-loss between these two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Musk and Altman were co-founders of OpenAi in 2015. But the two couldn’t get along. Musk left, sued, and started a competitor called xAI.
Now comes this. There is speculation Musk is trying to derail the final stages of OpenAi’s latest round of funding. A $40 billion dash- for-cash that would nearly double OpenAi’s valuation to $300 billion in just four months. The timing further complicates things for Altman, who is in the process of transforming OpenAI from a non-profit company to a for-profit company. This unasked for intrusion from Musk now ups the stakes even more for the most recognizable name in AI.
Turning to markets, stocks are under pressure Tuesday, as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies before Congress. He told Senators the Fed does not have to be in a rush to lower interest rates given the health of the economy. Stocks are also down as President Trump slaps new tariffs on steel and aluminum. Other countries have vowed to retaliate with their own tariffs on American goods.
That’ll do it for your Daily Briefing. From New York City, I’m Conway Gittens with TheStreet.
