Musk vs. Altman: The fight over OpenAI

Somehow, in between gutting the federal government and running Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk has found time to launch a $97.4 billion takeover bid for OpenAI, said Kelsey Piper in Vox. That seemingly lowball offer — the ChatGPT-maker is thought to be worth more than $300 billion — was quickly rejected by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman last week. "No thank you," he wrote on the Musk-owned X platform, formerly Twitter. "But we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want."

While Musk's takeover proposal is likely dead, it could "still have big implications for perhaps the most important company in artificial intelligence," said Piper. That's because Musk was bidding for the nonprofit entity that controls OpenAI's for-profit business and which was founded with the mission to "ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity." Altman is under intense pressure from investors such as Microsoft to convert the entire operation into a for-profit venture, which would let it raise more capital. "The current rumor is that the new for-profit entity would compensate the nonprofit with about $40 billion for its assets." But after Musk's nearly $100 billion bid, the nonprofit is effectively duty-bound to sell for at least that, making any conversion much more expensive for Altman.

"Why is Musk messing with OpenAI?" asked Lily Jamali in BBC.com. The billionaire has justified his bid by saying that he wants to return the firm — which he co-founded with Altman and others in 2015 — "to its nonprofit roots and original mission." But Musk may have "somewhat less noble motives." Not coincidentally, he owns an artificial intelligence venture, xAI, and may think that his best chance to get ahead is by "kneecapping his most formidable competitor."

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For Musk, this is deeply personal, said Keach Hagey in The Wall Street Journal. The Tesla CEO, 53, was once a mentor to Altman, 39, who looked up to Musk "as a hero, a real-life Tony Stark." But their relationship soured in 2017 after Altman blocked Musk from taking majority control at OpenAI, saying such a structure would let him become "a dictator." Since that point, the two have been bitter enemies, with Musk accusing his younger rival of "perfidy and deceit," and Altman saying Musk is not "a happy person. I do feel for him."

"This isn't a good versus evil battle," said Allison Morrow in CNN.com. Altman is not an "antidote to Musk's megalomania — for all we know, he's just a younger, more charming version of it." In this clash of tech titans, the only side to root for "is the side of struggle." If Musk were to gain control of OpenAI and merge it with xAI, the resulting behemoth would crush all competition, slow innovation, and be too big to regulate. "Consolidation in an industry as young as AI is a recipe for unchecked power, and Musk certainly doesn't need any more of that."