Following a $97.4bn bid from a group of investors led by Elon Musk to takeover OpenAI’s assets, which include ChatGPT, the chief executive of the company says it’s “not for sale”.
Co-founder of OpenAI spoke at AI Action Summit
Yesterday on Monday 11 February, co-founder of OpenAI, Sam Altman, spoke about the company’s mission at the AI Action Summit in Paris.
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“We are an unusual organisation and we have this mission of making AGI (artificial general intelligence) benefit all of humanity, and we are here to do that,” he said.
Altman was then asked what AGI meant, to which he replied, “most people use it to mean, like, really strong, powerful AI systems”.
Musk put in a bid for OpenAI’s assets
Sam Altman had Elon Musk had co-founded OpenAI before a public falling out caused the latter to leave.
Marc Toberoff, Musk’s attorney, confirmed that the tech mogul had submitted a bid for all of OpenAI’s assets to its board on Monday. This includes ChatGPT.
Altman turned down the offer
In response to the bid for OpenAI’s assets, Altman posted on the social media platform owned by Musk, X (formerly known as Twitter), publicly turning down the offer.
Altman wrote: “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want”.
OpenAI isn’t a publicly traded company
So you might be thinking who owns OpenAI? It actually isn’t a publicly traded company. This means that unlike companies like Meta and Microsoft, its ownership isn’t spread through shares in the stock market.
Instead, OpenAI’s structure involves partnership between nonprofit and for-profit companies.
Musk claims he aims to make it nonprofit
The owner of SpaceX says he wants to turn OpenAI completely non-profit, returning it to its roots and original mission of benefiting humanity.
But it’s important to note that he also owns OpenAI’s rival, xAI.
People are skeptical of his intentions
Since Musk already owns OpenAI’s rival firm in the US, investors are skeptical of his motives.
Speaking to BBC, Christie Pitts, a tech investor in San Francisco said, “I think it’s fair to be pretty suspicious of this considering that he has a competitor himself… which is structured as a for-profit company, so I think there’s more than meets the eye here.”
Altman has ambitions opposite to Musk’s
Unlike Musk’s claimed ambitions, Altman wants to make OpenAI into a fully for-profit company, investing money back into AI research.
He has a view on Musk’s intentions similar to that of Pitts’, telling Axios that being the competitor, it’s likely Musk wants to buy OpenAI to get a better grip on the market.
Altman said Musk was “a competitor who is not able to beat us in the market and you know, instead is just trying to say, like, ‘I’m gonna buy this’ with total disregard for the mission.”
Musk is ready to pay up
OpenAI was valued at $157bn in its latest funding round in October 2024. This is a number much higher than the offer on the table, $97.4bn.
According to BBC, Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, said the consortium led by Musk would be “prepared to consider matching or exceeding” any higher bids that could come up.
He also said, “Musk is the person best positioned to protect and grow OpenAI’s technology.” But while Musk is eager to gain control over OpenAI, Altman and the company board have yet to let it happen.
