‘I don’t think he’s a happy guy’
Sam Altman said Tuesday that Elon Musk’s “insecurity” was a factor in his decision to make a hostile $97.4 billion bid to take control of OpenAI, escalating an ugly war of words between the rival tech billionaires.
Altman reiterated that OpenAI is “not for sale” after the unsolicited offer from a group led by Musk – who is currently trying to block the startup from restructuring to a for-profit entity as part of a broad federal antitrust lawsuit against the ChatGPT maker, key investor Microsoft and Altman himself.
“Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity,” Altman said during an interview with Bloomberg at the high-profile Paris AI summit. “I feel for the guy. I don’t think he’s a happy person.”
Altman and Musk co-founded OpenAI as a non-profit in 2015, but fell out after having disagreements over its long-term direction.
Musk has since founded xAI, which directly competes with OpenAI in the race to develop the technology.
The OpenAI boss accused Musk of “probably just trying to slow us down” with his latest tactic.
“He obviously is a competitor,” Altman added. “I wish he would just compete by building a better product, but I think there’s been a lot of tactics, many, many lawsuits, all sorts of other crazy stuff, now this.”
Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff unveiled the shock offer on Monday and said the world’s richest man had secured backing from an array of well-known investors, including venture firms such as Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC, Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management and Vy Capital, and 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.”
Within minutes after the offer first surfaced, Altman publicly rejected it while taking a shot at the $44 billion price that Musk paid to buy X, formerly known as Twitter.
“No thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” Altman wrote on X.
Musk replied by calling Altman a “swindler.”
The jabs are nothing new for Altman and Musk.
When Altman unveiled his $500 billion “Stargate” AI infrastructure project alongside President Trump last month, Musk publicly alleged that he had it on “good authority” that Altman and his partners “don’t actually have the money.”
“Wrong, as you surely know,” Altman said at the time. “Want to come visit the first site already under way? This is great for the country. I realize what is great for the country isn’t always what’s optimal for your companies, but in your new role I hope you’ll mostly put [America] first.”
The takeover offer further complicates talks about the future of OpenAI, which has pledged to key investors that it will restructure within the next two years – or return their money.
OpenAI is aiming to restructure as a public benefit corporation.
The startup has said that the nonprofit entity that currently oversees its operations will continue to exist, though it will no longer be in control.
At the same time, OpenAI is reportedly close to securing $40 billion in funds from SoftBank as part of a round that would value the startup at $300 billion.
Musk’s attorney Toberoff said in a statement that the non-profit must “be fairly compensated for what its leadership is taking away from it: control over the most transformative technology of our time.”
By making a $97.4 billion offer for OpenAI’s assets, Musk may have set a floor price for the restructuring that is far higher than Altman and his allies had hoped.
Musk and his partners say they are prepared to match any offers.
If a deal were to happen, Musk’s xAI could merge with OpenAI.
Even outside of OpenAI, the takeover bid has generated a fair amount of skepticism.
“We view this bid as not competitive but with the intention to slow down the OpenAI capital raising process as the Board now has to look at this bid even though the valuation is likely closer to $300 billion,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note to clients.
