Elon Musk has branded Sam Altman a “swindler”, after the OpenAI boss rejected the Tesla founder’s $97.4bn offer to buy the artificial intelligence start-up he co-founded.
Musk took much of the artificial intelligence world off guard when he led a consortium to table a speculative $97.4bn (£785m) bid for OpenAI, one of the world’s most valuable AI start-ups.
Altman immediately rejected the offer, taking a swipe at his former business partner in a post on X, adding to what is fast becoming a bitter public feud between the two tech bosses.
“No thank you but we will by twitter (sic) for $9.74 billion if you want,” Altman wrote, alluding to the social media platform’s value having plummeted since Musk bought it in 2022.
But the Musk hit back with a separate post in which he called the AI founder “Scam Altman”, branding him a “swindler”.
Alongside the comments, Musk posted a video of Altman appearing at a US committee hearing. He told politicians that he did not own any equity in the generative AI platform, something which he is now in the process of changing as Open AI transitions into a for-profit model.
Musk, who cofounded OpenAI before leaving its board in 2018, has since set up a rival artificial intelligence start-up, xAI, that is a direct competitor to OpenAI. He has previously argued that attempts to move the highly-valued firm to a different ownership model were betraying OpenAI’s founding principles, and has already launched a lawsuit seeking to block it.
Speaking to Bloomberg News on Tuesday, Altman confirmed OpenAI was not for sale, before adding that he felt sorry for Musk, who he said was not “a happy person”. He also accused the X owner of trying to “slow [OpenAI] down [because] he’s a competitor”.
The comments from the OpenAI boss are the latest salvo in a growing line of public barbs between the two tech titans, both of whom are working closely with the Donald Trump administration.
Musk publicly criticised OpenAI’s involvement in the US President’s ‘Stargate Project’, a $500bn investment into AI infrastructure announced by Donald Trump shortly after his inauguration.
He branded Stargate “fake” and said the firms involved – including OpenAI – could not provide the financial backing they had promised.
Altman hit back, again on X, writing that “what is great for the country isn’t always optimal for your companies”.