Top tech titans feud in bitter battle for AI's future
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photos: Richard Bord/WireImage, Andrew Harnik/Getty Images and Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The New York Times
The only fight more hostile than Elon Musk vs. the federal bureaucracy may be Elon Musk vs. Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
Why it matters: The victor could help determine the future direction of the world's most powerful technology.
Driving the news: Musk yesterday bid $97.4 billion to buy OpenAI's for-profit assets, which Altman is in the midst of cleaving from the company's nonprofit board.
- This is partially about trolling, partially about upstaging the Paris AI Summit, and partially about trying to slow down a strategic rival who's made recent inroads with President Trump.
The big picture: Either way, Musk wins.
- At a minimum, he makes life difficult for one of his most bitter rivals.
- And if Musk or his xAI somehow ends up with OpenAI's assets, which is extremely unlikely for a slew of reasons, then he wouldn't kick them out of bed either.
Zoom in: It's unclear if Musk is offering more for the assets than is Altman, but it may not matter.
- OpenAI's board is mission-driven, meaning that it needn't necessarily take the most lucrative offer.
- This is unlike what happened when Musk bid on Twitter, which was chaired by the exact same person who now chairs OpenAI's board (Bret Taylor).
What they're saying: Altman was at a dinner in Paris when the news broke — having been seated near Vice President Vance — and tweeted: "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want."
- Musk clapped back: "Swindler."
The intrigue: One of the first things President Trump did when he took office was to announce Stargate, intended to be a $500 billion effort to build infrastructure for OpenAI.
- Musk immediately bashed the project, one of Trump's early big wins, claiming none of the players had the necessary money.
- If Musk controlled OpenAI, it would further entangle his business interests with his new position in the government.
The bottom line: This episode is likely to become a footnote to the ongoing feud between the tech titans, and highlights Musk's willingness to attack a company that Trump all but crowned as America's national AI champion.
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to reflect that Musk bid $97.4 billion for OpenAI's assets (not $94.7 billion).
