Why would Musk want to buy OpenAI for $97 billion?

Elon Musk has offered $97 billion to buy part of OpenAI. Many people, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, believe that Musk's main interest is in hurting Altman, not actually owning the company.

When Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, comes along, we never know what he's up to because of his controversial nature. But just because he's Elon Musk, his ideas can't be ignored.

Natančna ponudba se je glasila 97,375 milijarde ameriških dolarjev. Altman je hitro zavrnil ponudbo in Musku vrnil žogico s ponudbo za družbeno platformo X (prej Twitter) z besedami: “Ne, hvala, vendar bomo kupili Twitter za 9,74 milijarde dolarjev, če želite.” Musk je Twitter kupil leta 2022, in sicer za 44 milijard dolarjev.

no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want

— Sam Altman (@sama) February 10, 2025

OpenAI is currently a non-profit organization that oversees a very valuable business. The group created ChatGPT, which kicked up a lot of dust when it launched, and it has big plans. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wants to turn OpenAI into a for-profit company, but he plans to leave a certain share of OpenAI's non-profit arm.

Musk and his theoretical co-investors argue that $97 billion is a good deal to buy the nonprofit arm of OpenAI.

Je Musk s ponudbo mislil resno? Lahko je le želel utišati Altmana, nekdanjega zaveznika, ki je zdaj njegov tekmec. Njegova ponudba bi lahko bila tudi čisto taktična poteza, ki bi prisilila upravni odbor podjetja Open AI, d ponovno oceni, kako vrednotiti neprofitni del organizacije. Z besedami Altmana: “Mislim, da nas verjetno zgolj poskuša upočasniti.«

Obstajajo pa še drugi razlogi, da ob Muskovi ponudbi dvignete obrvi. Prvi je Muskova nagnjenost k temu, da govori eno in dela drugo. Tako kot marca lani, ko je zapisal, da “ne donira denarja nobenemu kandidatu za predsednika ZDA” – in nato doniral več kot četrt milijarde dolarjev predsedniški kampanji Donalda Trumpa.

Musk has a history of making big deals that are either not real or have tried to back out of them. In 2022, when he signed a hastily negotiated deal to buy Twitter, he tried to void the deal, claiming Twitter management had deceived him.