The hostile takeover bid of OpenAI by Elon Musk has resulted in fierce resistance from its co-founder Sam Altman, who has made it clear that the non-profit behind ChatGPT is not for sale. Altman also said that Musk was acting from a "position of insecurity".
"Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity," Altman said during an interview with Bloomberg.
"I feel for the guy. I don't think he's a happy person," he added.
Musk, who was one of the early backers of OpenAI and invested around $45 million in the non-profit, launched a bid to buy it for $97.4 billion.
Musk's attorney, Marc Toberoff, said that the Tesla CEO had backing from several prominent investors, including venture firms such as Joe Lonsdale's 8VC, Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, and Vy Capital, as well as Endeavour CEO Ari Emanuel to buy OpenAI.
It should be noted that in the past, too, Musk has made such claims, including securing funds to take Tesla private and buying Twitter for $44 billion, which he was eventually forced to pursue after he tried to back out of the deal.
Musk, who was the first OpenAI co-founder to suggest that it should transition into a for-profit severed his ties in 2018. In 2023 Musk also launched his own AI startup called xAI and is a direct competitor to OpenAI.
On Musk's unsolicited bid to buy OpenAI, Altman said, "He's probably just trying to slow us down."
Also read:?Elon Musk-led group wants to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion
Meanwhile, Reuters has reported that OpenAI's board has not yet received a formal bid from the Musk-led consortium to buy the non-profit.
It also reported that in an internal message to OpenAI employees on Monday, Altman said the board, though it had not officially reviewed the offer, planned to reject it based on the interest of OpenAI's mission.
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