Clash of Tech Titans.
Did you know, Elon Musk was one of the founders of ChatGPT? Yes, but here’s what happened when he tried to buy the company.
Decades ago, Elon Musk had ‘helped’ as the founder member of an artificial intelligence company, OpenAI. It is a parent company of ChatGPT and it operates as a nonprofit organization. Fast forward to 2024, Musk sued the company twice for different reasons. He even accused OpenAI of engaging in racketeering. But now, he is attempting to purchase the AI company. Leading a group of investors, Elon Musk has offered to buy OpenAI at about $97.4 billion. However, CEO Sam Altman responded with a “No, Thank You,” firmly declining the offer. But this was not all. Here’s what happened which led to Musk calling Altman a ‘swindler’!
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI not just rejected the unsolicited bid; he even went on Musk’s social platform ‘X’ (former Twitter) to make a counter-offer to buy his company. He tweeted, saying, “We will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” This was a mockery of the fact that Musk had purchased Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion and made it ‘X’. Musk, being an early investor and board member of OpenAI, was taken aback by this and got triggered to the length that he went on commenting “Swindler” on Altman’s tweet. The fact is that Musk had invested about $45 million in the company until 2018 when it was a startup.
ChatGPT’s sudden success over the past 2 years despite challenges like DeepSeek, has opened new revenue streams for OpenAI. Now, the business has announced to formally change itself from being a tax-exempt organization with a nonprofit board. It will now convert into a for-profit organization and perhaps this is what has convinced Musk to bid for it. Over time, he has become increasingly unhappy with the direction the company is taking.
