"Don't think he is a happy person...": Sam Altman takes dig at Elon Musk over OpenAI bid
Washington DC: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Tuesday took a jab at Elon Musk, who reportedly offered to buy the artificial intelligence startup's assets for $97.4 billion, accusing the Tesla CEO of acting from a "position of insecurity."
"Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity," Altman said during an interview with Bloomberg Television on the sidelines of the Paris AI Summit. "I feel for the guy. I don't think he's a happy person," he added in comments cited by multiple US publications, including the New York Post and the Hill.
According to the New York Post, Altman reiterated that OpenAI is "not for sale" after Musk and a group of investors made an unsolicited offer. "The company is not for sale. It's another one of his tactics to try to mess with us," he said.
When asked what Musk wants out of the deal during the Bloomberg Television interview, OpenAI CEO said, "He's probably just trying to slow us down."
On Monday, The New York Times reported that a group of investors led by Musk made a USD 97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI's assets. In response, Altman took a jibe at the offer on X, saying, "No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want."
Musk responded by calling Altman a "swindler."
According to the New York Post, Musk's attorney Marc Toberoff said that Musk had secured 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 Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel.
In a statement, Musk said it was "time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was," the publication reported.
The Wall Street Journal first reported news of the offer. Meanwhile, The New York Times, citing a source familiar with OpenAI's response, reported that the company has not yet reviewed Musk's bid.
This unsolicited offer could potentially disrupt OpenAI's efforts to finalise a USD 40 billion funding deal, which would significantly increase the company's valuation from just four months ago.
The new funding round, led by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, is expected to value OpenAI at USD 300 billion, according to three sources familiar with the deal who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
If completed, this deal would place OpenAI among the most valuable private companies globally, alongside Musk's SpaceX and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, according to The New York Times.
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