Elon Musk, the billionaire co-founder of OpenAI, has made a big bid: He is leading a group of investors who want to buy a controlling stake in the company for $97.4 billion.
This information became known thanks to a publication by The Wall Street Journal, URA-Inform reports.
In the past, Musk stood at the origins of OpenAI, but left the board of directors due to a conflict of interest. Now he intends to regain influence over the company and change its strategy, making OpenAI's developments open to everyone. In his opinion, this will allow AI to serve humanity more transparently.
However, the current head of OpenAI, Sam Altman, rejected the offer. In his response, he ironically noted: “No, thanks, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” This was a reference to Musk's purchase of the X/Twitter social network, for which he once paid more than $40 billion. In response, Musk sharply called Altman a “fraudster.”
Altman's refusal may also be due to the fact that the company has ambitious development plans. One of these projects is Stargate, which is aimed at large-scale development of local AI infrastructure. It was supported by President Donald Trump immediately after his inauguration. If Musk's offer had been accepted, these plans could have been jeopardized.
Experts note that the conflict of interest between Musk and Altman shows the complexity of interaction between the largest players in the field of AI. The open source that Musk is striving for and the commercial goals that OpenAI is pursuing may not be compatible.
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