‘OpenAI not for sale’, Sam Altman calls Elon Musk ‘competitor who is not able to beat us’

Open AI CEO Sam Altman on Tuesday (Feb 11) said that OpenAI is not for sale, particularly not to Elon Musk. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is a “competitor who is not able to beat”, Altman told Axios on the sidelines of the AI Action Summit in Paris.

“OpenAI is not for sale. OpenAI’s mission is not for sale – to say nothing of the fact that, like, a competitor who is not able to beat us in the market and you know, instead is just trying to say, like, ‘I’m gonna buy this’ with total disregard for the mission is a likely path there,” Altman said. 

Also read: Elon Musk offers to buy OpenAI for nearly $100bn, Sam Altman says would rather buy ‘Twitter’ for…

He further said there have been like versions of Elon trying to somehow take control of OpenAI for a long time, “so, it’s like, okay, here’s this week’s episode.”

Musk’s $97.4 billion bid 

This comes a day after Elon Musk made a USD 97.4 billion bid to acquire the assets of OpenAI. The bid is backed by Musk’s AI company xAI along with investors, including Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital, and Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, according to a report. 

Also read: OpenAI chief Sam Altman talks AI collaboration with India, says it’s ‘incredibly important market’

“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was. We will make sure that happens,” Musk said.

The OpenAI CEO took a jibe at the offer on X, saying, “No thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”

Altman during the interview also said that he does not believe Musk is a “happy person” and Musk’s “whole life is from a position of insecurity — I feel for the guy.”

Also read: Musk’s decade-old rivalry with Sam Altman creates hitch between Tesla CEO and Trump

This comes as the latest development as Musk’s latest challenge to OpenAI, an organisation he helped establish nearly a decades ago. 

(With inputs from agencies)