Investors led by Elon Musk have made a surprise bid for the artificial intelligence organisation OpenAI.
The group offered $97.4 billion for the start-up behind OpenAI and ChatGPT but was faced by a mocking rejection from CEO Sam Altman.
Altman responded the social platform X, which is owned by Musk: “no thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Elon Musk is the richest man in the world and the owner of X, formally known as Twitter, which he bought for $44billion in 2022.
Musk started the company behind OpenAI with CEO Sam Altman back in 2015 when it gained success after the launch of artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT. Musk started his own AI company, xAI in 2023.
This is the latest in an ongoing feud between the tech giants.
Last week lawyers representing OpenAI and Musk challenged each other in a California federal court after Musk sued the ChatGPT maker.
Musk alleged the artificial intelligence start-up had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab and requested a court order that would block it from converting to a for-profit company, according to Musk’s attorney.
US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers raised concerns about OpenAI’s relationship with business partner Microsoft and said she wouldn’t stop the case from moving to trial as soon as next year so a jury can decide.
She said: “It is plausible that what Mr. Musk is saying is true. We’ll find out. He’ll sit on the stand.”
The judge is yet to rule on Musk’s request but in the courtroom said it was a “stretch” for Musk to claim he will be irreparably harmed if she doesn’t intervene to stop OpenAI from moving forward with its planned transition.
Musk’s attorney said in a statement that if Altman and OpenAI’s current board “are intent on becoming a fully for-profit corporation, it is vital that the charity be fairly compensated for what its leadership is taking away from it: control over the most transformative technology of our time.”
In early January, Musk’s attorney sent a letter to the attorneys general of California, where OpenAI operates, and Delaware, where it is incorporated, which said offices must “ensure any such transactional process relating to OpenAI’s charitable assets provides at least fair market value to protect the public’s beneficial interest.”
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