Elon Musk has announced that he will withdraw his $97.4 billion bid to control OpenAI if the company drops its effort to change its corporate structure. The bid, made with a consortium of investors, was seen as escalating a feud between Musk and OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, over the future of artificial intelligence. Altman is currently working to shift control of the company from the nonprofit to its investors, including Microsoft.
The feud between Musk and Altman dates back to Musk’s founding of OpenAI in 2015. After leaving the organization in 2018, Altman attached OpenAI to a for-profit company to raise funds for A.I. technologies, while the nonprofit retained control. Now, Altman and his colleagues are working on a plan to shift control of the company from the nonprofit to its investors, a move that Musk’s bid could complicate.
OpenAI is unlikely to drop its plan to separate from the nonprofit, as failure to do so could result in its funding converting into debt. Musk is also suing OpenAI to block its restructuring plans. The company is currently in the process of finalizing a $40 billion fundraising deal that would nearly double its valuation to around $300 billion.
The lawsuit also involves allegations of copyright infringement by OpenAI and Microsoft related to news content on A.I. systems. Both companies have denied the claims. The ongoing battle between Musk, Altman, and OpenAI highlights the complex and competitive landscape of the artificial intelligence industry.
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