Technische Universität Berlin
In what is becoming an increasingly tiresome and petty personal spat between a duet of tech billionaire , theWall Street Journal reports Mondaythat a syndicate backed by xAI CEO Elon Musk has made an unasked , $ 97.4 billion bid for control over rival OpenAI . This crack comes mere month after Musk sued the company over its plan to transition to a for - profit line of work structure .
“ It ’s time for OpenAI to return to the undefendable - source , base hit - focused force-out for good it once was , ” the WSJ cited Musk as say in a statement provided by his lawyer , Marc Toberoff , to the OpenAI board . “ We will make indisputable that happens . ”
Technische Universität Berlin
The WSJ describe that the bid is being backed by xAI , which would belike blend with OpenAI , should the pot eventually go through . The board has not made any decision about the offering as of yet , but OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has in public rejected Musk ’s prelude , offering to alternatively purchase Twitter ( now , officially , X “ The Everything App ” ) for the same amount .
no thank you but we will bribe chirrup for $ 9.74 billion if you want
& mdash ; Sam Altman ( @sama)February 10 , 2025
Musk and Altman have been at this for year now . The two co - establish OpenAI in 2015 , though Musk resigned from his spatial relation as co - chair of the company ’s board in 2018 after his demand for “ majority equity , out-and-out control , and to be CEO , ” were rejected . He went on to bump xAI in 2023 — purveyors of theGrokchatbot — and has since committed torelentlessly harassing OpenAI , and Sam Altman in particular .
In March 2023 , half a class before founding xAI , Musk cosigned an exposed lettercalling for “ all AI research laboratory to immediately intermit for at least 6 calendar month the training of AI system more powerful than GPT-4 . ” It is for certain only a coincidence that xAI itself publicly launched almost exactly six calendar month after that alphabetic character was published .
In November of that twelvemonth , shortly after Altman had been ( temporarily)rousted from his leaders positionat OpenAI , Musk shared an unsigned and anonymous letterthat he “ receive ” that criminate Altman of numerous unethical dealings as chief executive officer . The author of those accusations were finally tracked to unverified posts made to Board.com , an anonymous message instrument panel web site .
Musk has action OpenAI multiple time in 2024 alone . In March , he sued the company along with Altman and the fellowship ’s President , Greg Brockman , over allegations that they hadviolated the company ’s founding contractin their avocation of commercial interests at the disbursement of the public good , though he subsequently call in the courting the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. before a justice was scheduled to pass down their ruling on whether it could proceed or would be dismissed .
Herevived that lawsuit in Augustwith the same claim as before . “ Never before has a bay window go from tax - nontaxable brotherly love to a $ 157 billion for - profit , marketplace - paralyzing gorgon — and in just eight years , ” the complaint read . “ After Musk lent his name to the venture , invested important clip , ten of millions of dollar bill in seed cap and recruited top AI scientist for OpenAI Inc , Musk and the non - profit ’s namesake objective were betray by Altman and his accomplices . ”
In November , Musk suddenly rectify the cause , expanding it to target OpenAI - backer , Microsoft , while identify Shivon Zilis , mother of three of Musk ’s children , as a plaintiff . OpenAI responded in Decemberwith a blog post titled , “ Elon Musk wanted an OpenAI for - profit , ” detail Musk ’s initial support for the for - net profit transition and provided e-mail records to back up those assertions . The court have not yet ruled on the ongoing lawsuit , but given that the extend feud between the two human beings now stretches more than six days , there ’s little Leslie Townes Hope that this late fusillade will be the last of their fight .