Sam Altman (left) and Elon Musk (right). Photo: Carlos Barría/Reuters; REX/Shutterstock
American billionaire Elon Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015, made an offer to buy the company for a record $97.4 billion. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman not only rejected the offer, but also responded with an ironic comment: “No, thank you, but we’ll buy (social network – ed.) X for $9.74 billion if you want,” The Time reports.
Musk, who left OpenAI in 2019 due to a dispute over the company’s direction, has repeatedly criticised it for turning into a commercial entity and losing its original non-profit mission. In 2024, he even filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing its management of violating its founding charter.
For its part, OpenAI, which has grown into a company with a capitalisation of around $100 billion, is in no hurry to change its strategy. Altman remains a key figure in its success and does not seem to intend to hand over control to Musk.
This situation has only exacerbated the confrontation between the two tech leaders, each of whom has their own vision of artificial intelligence. Musk is actively developing his company xAI, which aims to create “artificial general intelligence” (AGI) with the highest level of security and openness.
Could this conflict change the balance of power in the AI sector? For now, the answer remains open.
