The Board of Directors of Openai officially rejected Elon Musk’s offer at $ 100 billion for the manufacturer of the most famous artificial intelligence (IA) tool in the world, Chatgpt.
But the unsolicited offer may not be a failure – at least with regard to Musk, according to experts.
Indeed, the offer could always complicate the plans of the CEO SAM Altman to transform OPENAI of a non -profit controlled entity into a for -profit business.
Musk “mainly tries to thwart OpenAi’s growth trajectory,” said Associate Teaching Professor at Cambridge University Johnnie Penn, in an interview with the BBC.
Last week, Musk and a consortium of investors, of which Hollywood are supening, Ari Emanuel, submitted an offer of $ 97.4 billion (78.4 billion pounds sterling) for all Openai assets.
It was a huge sum – but less than the $ 157 billion in which the company was evaluated in a financing lap only four months ago, and much lower than the $ 300 billion that some people think it is now worth .
This complicates all this is the unusual structure of OpenAi which involves a partnership between non -profit and lucrative weapons.
Mr. Altman wants to change this, stripping him of his non -profit board of directors.
This implies costs that Mr. Musk apparently tries to swell.
“What Musk tries to do here is to increase the perceived value of the non -profit branch of Openai, so that Optai must pay more to withdraw the obligations she has to her own non -profit goal “Said Dr. Penn.
The value of its non -profit assets is not clear. With his offer, Musk floated a prize, according to the principal professor of Cornell University, Lutz Finger, who is also the founder and CEO of the AI R2Decide startup.
“By Musk puts a price on the non -profit part, he makes the split much more expensive in Altman,” Finger at the BBC told. “It’s very simple.”
Mr. Musk justified his actions by saying that he wanted to return OPENAI – that he co -founded – to his non -profit roots and the original mission of developing AI for the benefit of humanity.
Others, however, suggest that he has a little less noble patterns linked to his own company of IA XAI and Chatbot Grok, who received a dull response from the public.
“Musk missed the train, a little. He is late, and he has made several catch -up attempts,” said Mr. Finger.
Now, says Mr. Finger, Mr. Musk tries to slow down his most formidable competitor.
An already tense relationship seemed to be more aggravated last week with Mr. Altman annoying Mr. Musk’s offer on X, and Mr. Musk retorting by qualifying his outline of “Swindler”.
Altman then retaliated in an interview with Bloomberg, believing that Mr. Musk is not “a happy person” and saying that his decisions are made from an “insecurity position”.
The tit-for-tat also takes place in court, where the American district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers plans to request Mr. Musk for an injunction which would block Openai from his planned conversion.
He claims that he will be irreparably injured without his intervention.
“It is plausible that what Mr. Musk says is true. We will discover it. He will sit on the stand,” said Gonzalez Rogers during an audience in Musk against Altman earlier this month in Oakland, in California.
According to OpenAi lawyers, Mr. Musk’s recent offer contradicts his previous affirmations that Openai assets cannot be transferred for a “private gain”.
“(O) ut from the court, these constraints obviously do not apply, as long as Musk and its allies are buyers,” said their brief.
Some observers say that concluding an agreement never seemed to be its goal.
“I think he is just trying to create noise, news and dismay,” said Karl Freund, founder and main analyst at Cambrian-Ai.
But in addition to causing problems with its former rival, this strategy could inflict lasting damage to the own reputation of Mr. Musk.
“He is brilliant. He creates incredible businesses that make incredible things. But his personal program makes people question people,” said Freund.
