OpenAI’s Sam Altman says Elon Musk ‘probably just trying to slow us down’

NEW YORK – OpenAI chief executive officer Sam Altman rebuffed Mr Elon Musk’s

US$97.4 billion (S$132 billion) offer

to take control of the artificial-intelligence start-up for the second time in less than a day, accusing the world’s richest man of making the bid just to gain a competitive advantage.

“I think he is probably just trying to slow us down. He obviously is a competitor,” Mr Altman said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Feb 11 on the sidelines of the Paris AI summit. “I wish he would just compete by building a better product, but I think there’s been a lot of tactics, many, many lawsuits, all sorts of other crazy stuff, now this.”

Mr Musk and Mr Altman were both co-founders of OpenAI, but Mr Musk ultimately parted ways after disagreements over the direction of the company. He is now suing the start-up behind ChatGPT, claiming it has strayed from its founding mission and prioritized profit over the betterment of humanity. Mr Musk has also established his own AI firm, xAI, that competes directly with OpenAI in developing models.

In the interview on Feb 11, Mr Altman chided Mr Musk, saying: “Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity – I feel for the guy.” Mr Altman added that he doesn’t think Mr Musk is “a happy person.” 

While Mr Altman is publicly rebuffing Mr Musk’s takeover attempt, OpenAI’s board will have some say in how seriously to take the bid. On Feb 11, OpenAI board director Larry Summers told Bloomberg News he has not received “any formal communication” from Mr Musk on the bid. 

The organisation’s board oversees its nonprofit arm, which in turn controls the for-profit business. But Mr Bret Taylor, the former co-CEO of Salesforce who took over as chairman in 2023 following a dramatic falling out between Mr Altman and OpenAI’s previous board, has a fraught history with Mr Musk. He was chairman of Twitter when Mr Musk made his unsolicited bid to buy the business and then tried to back out – before a court forced him to proceed.

On Feb 10, when news of Mr Musk’s offer for OpenAI control first surfaced, Mr Altman jokingly posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: “No thank you but we will buy twitter for US$9.74 billion if you want.”

Mr Musk’s attorney said his offer was backed by xAI and had support from a range of investors including Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital, Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC and media executive Ari Emanuel, through his investment fund. 

Meanwhile, OpenAI is in the middle of trying to orchestrate a massive fundraising round that may give the company a post-money valuation of US$300 billion, Bloomberg previously reported. The company was valued at US$157 billion in October.

Mr Altman added in the interview Feb 11 that the OpenAI board is looking at a range of options for the business in the future. But selling the AI operations is not on the table.

“OpenAI is not for sale,” he said. “The OpenAI mission is not for sale.” 

OpenAI completely overhauled its board following the blowup between Mr Altman and directors. Among the directors now are former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and investment banker Adebayo Ogunlesi. Mr Summers is a paid contributor to Bloomberg TV. BLOOMBERG