Today: 4 August 2025
26 March 2023
1 min read

Musk tried to take over OpenAI in 2018, but failed

According to a Semafor report, he also reneged on a promise to supply $1 billion in funding, contributing only $100 million before he walked…reports Asian Lite News

Elon Musk tried to take control of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, in early 2018 but Sam Altman and OpenAI’s other founders rejected Musk’s proposal.

Musk, in turn, walked away from the company and reneged on a massive planned donation, reports Semafor. Musk told Altman that he believed the “venture had fallen fatally behind Google”.

But the Twitter CEO failed to convince OpenAI founders to take over the AI chatbot ChatGPT creator. When Musk walked away, he resigned from its board in 2018 citing a conflict of interest with his work at Tesla.

According to a Semafor report, he also reneged on a promise to supply $1 billion in funding, contributing only $100 million before he walked.

This left OpenAI with “no ability to pay the astronomical fees associated with training AI models on supercomputers”.

In March, 2019, OpenAI announced it was creating a for-profit entity so that it could raise enough money to pay for the compute power.

“We want to increase our ability to raise capital while still serving our mission, and no pre-existing legal structure we know of strikes the right balance,” the company wrote at the time.

Less than six months later, Microsoft infused $1 billion in OpenAI, and the rest is history. They built a supercomputer to train massive models that eventually created ChatGPT and the image generator DALL-E.

The latest language model, GPT-4, has 1 trillion parameters. Musk has now raised questions over how a non-profit has become a $30 billion maximum-profit company for Satya Nadella-run tech giant.

“I’m still confused as to how a non-profit to which I donated $100 million somehow became a $30 billion market cap for-profit. If this is legal, why doesn’t everyone do it?” he quipped.

Musk has also paused OpenAI access to Twitter database. The AI chatbot ChatGPT is now a rage and Microsoft has infused $10 billion into it to make it more useful for across industries.

ALSO READ-AI one of biggest risks to civilisation, warns Elon Musk

Previous Story

Inflation dampens Ramadan spirit in Pakistan

Next Story

ChatGPT bug may have exposed payment information

Latest from -Top News

US Mulls Terror Tag for Muslim Brotherhood

The US’ plan to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group comes after a bipartisan bill was introduced by Republican Congressman…reports Asian Lite News The US is once again edging closer

Hamas Sets Terms For Disarmament

HAMAS: ‘The resistance and its weapons will not be abandoned until our full national rights are restored, foremost among which is the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state’ Hamas affirmed

Statehood For Palestine

Analysts see the general move as a deliberate push to revive a stagnant peace process long controlled by Israel, Hamas and the United States, all of whom, they say, have shown little

IBPC Dubai charts new growth path

Former Tata Motors CEO Ravi Kant headlines exclusive event as Indian business council sets course for transformation….reports Asian Lite News The Indian Business & Professional Council (IBPC) Dubai has signalled a significant

Miles in the Malls!

Dubai Mallathon kicks off today – The emirate’s biggest malls transform into indoor fitness arenas, inviting residents to walk, run, and win — all while staying cool, healthy, and community-connected….reports Asian Lite
Go toTop

Don't Miss

OpenAI CEO ready to invest in S. Korean startups

Altman said he had talks with many leaders on the

OpenAI faces bankruptcy risk

Analytics India Magazine reported that ChatGPT website has seen a