Elon Musk is proposing a $97.4 billion offer to buy control of OpenAI, a nonprofit that oversees the artificial intelligence startup behind ChatGPT. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, has expressed skepticism about Musk’s intentions, saying he does not consider it “particularly” serious.
Musk’s group claims the goal is to slow down a competitor and catch up with his own AI company, xAI, which developed the chatbot Grok. However, Altman dismissed this notion, stating that Musk’s motivations seem more focused on slowing OpenAI down rather than genuinely improving its capabilities.
The proposal comes after Musk questioned whether companies involved in President Donald Trump’s multibillion-dollar Stargate project had sufficient capital to finance it. OpenAI had initially stated that the project would deploy $100 billion immediately, but Musk expressed doubts about their financial capabilities.
Altman took a swipe at Musk, saying he “just actually try to show up and build” rather than making grand claims like “funding secured.” This remark is reminiscent of Musk’s infamous 2018 tweet about securing funding for Tesla’s private offering, which led to an SEC investigation and resulted in significant fines.
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/11/musks-97point4-billion-for-openai-aims-to-slow-down-a-competitor-sam-altman-says.html