Elon Musk’s OpenAI bid creates a legal maze and investor uncertainty—which is probably just what he wants
Jerry
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman gave an unequivocal answer at a conference in Paris today when asked whether his company was for sale following a surprise $97.4 billion bid by an Elon Musk-led investor group.
With thousands of attendees listening in the audience, Altman smiled and said, tersely, “no,” adding that OpenAI is committed to pursuing its “unusual mission” of creating AGI, or artificial general intelligence.
But legal experts, as well as the tech investor community, know full well that none of the issues surrounding Musk’s bid for control of OpenAI are that simple. Musk’s bid, technically for OpenAI’s non-profit assets, throws a big wrench in a major change Altman is trying to engineer to OpenAI’s convoluted structure.
Altman is trying to shift OpenAI into an entirely for-profit company, from control by a nonprofit entity. The move is intended to make it easier to secure capital for OpenAI to further develop its AI models, but the buyout bid adds a new layer of legal and financial uncertainty to the already complex scenario.
Source: FORTUNE
