To take Musk at his word, the bid is an attempt to wrest back control of OpenAI to ensure it is developing AI for the benefit of society rather than to line the pockets of investors who have pushed the firm’s valuation up to nearly $300bn in the last week.
Musk – who is currently overhauling (to his supporters; “tearing down” to his opponents) the US government to be, as he would describe it, leaner and more efficient while also devastating important programmes such as international aid and cutting-edge scientific research – has lodged a near $100bn bid for OpenAI’s non-profit arm.
Musk and Altman have tussled over an on-off lawsuit about the way in which that original founding agreement for OpenAI back in 2015, when Musk bankrolled its creation, was allegedly reneged on.
For more than a decade now, Musk has seen a for-profit model for OpenAI as a bad idea, and may think the best way he can try to stop it is to highlight that OpenAI may be selling its non-profit rights on the cheap.
The two had a blowout argument over the future direction of OpenAI – the company they came together to found in 2015 – with Altman seemingly content to pursue a for-profit approach and Musk feeling that was forswearing the founding principles of the firm as well as its name.
