Dan Primack
The only fight more hostile than Elon Musk vs. the federal bureaucracy may be Elon Musk vs. Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
Why it matters: The victor could help determine the future direction of the world's most powerful technology.
Driving the news: Musk yesterday bid $97.4 billion to buy OpenAI's for-profit assets, which Altman is in the midst of cleaving from the company's nonprofit board.
- This is partially about trolling, partially about upstaging the Paris AI Summit, and partially about trying to slow down a strategic rival who's made recent inroads with President Trump.
The big picture: Either way, Musk wins.
- At a minimum, he makes life difficult for one of his most bitter rivals.
- And if Musk or his xAI somehow ends up with OpenAI's assets, which is extremely unlikely for a slew of reasons, then he wouldn't kick them out of bed either.
Zoom in: It's unclear if Musk is offering more for the assets than is Altman, but it may not matter.
- OpenAI's board is mission-driven, meaning that it needn't necessarily take the most lucrative offer.
- This is unlike what happened when Musk bid on Twitter, which was chaired by the exact same person who now chairs OpenAI's board (Bret Taylor).
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