- Sam Altman said a $97.4 billion Elon Musk-led bid for OpenAI is an attempt to stall competition.
- Altman told Bloomberg TV that he doesn’t think Musk is a “happy person” in an escalation of their feud.
- The OpenAI CEO told multiple outlets at a Paris AI summit that the company is “not for sale.”
Sam Altman has hit back at Elon Musk over his surprise bid for OpenAI, calling the move an effort to stifle a competitor and stating that he doesn’t think the Tesla boss is a “happy person.”
“Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity,” Altman said of Musk in a Tuesday interview with Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of the Paris AI Action Summit. “I feel for the guy. I really do. Actually, I don’t think he’s a happy person. I do feel for him.”
Altman’s remarks came after Musk on Monday led an unsolicited $97.4 billion bid with other investment firms to acquire OpenAI’s nonprofit arm, a proposal Altman has dismissed outright.
Musk said in a Monday statement that the bid is about returning OpenAI to an “open-source, safety-focused force for good.”
Altman suggested that Musk’s bid is less about OpenAI and more about stalling a competitor.
"I think he's probably just trying to slow us down," Altman told Bloomberg. "He obviously is a competitor. He's working hard, and he's raised a lot of money for xAI. They're trying to compete with us from a technological perspective, from, you know, getting the product into the market."
Musk's xAI is building rival AI models, positioning itself as a direct competitor to OpenAI.
"I wish he would just compete by building better products," Altman said. "But I think there have been a lot of tactics — many, many lawsuits, all sorts of other crazy stuff coming out of this. And we'll try to just put our head down and keep working."
Altman told multiple media outlets at the Paris AI summit that OpenAI is "not for sale." When asked by CNBC how seriously he is taking Musk's bid, the OpenAI chief said: "Not particularly."
OpenAI, X, and xAI did not immediately respond to a Business Insider request for comment.
Musk vs. Altman
Tensions between Musk and Altman have been escalating for years. Musk was a cofounder of OpenAI with Altman but cut ties with the company in 2018.
In March 2024, Musk sued Altman and OpenAI, accusing the company of betraying its founding principles, before dropping the lawsuit months later. In August 2024, he filed another lawsuit against Altman and OpenAI, accusing them of "manipulating" him into co-founding the company as a nonprofit.
Altman has repeatedly downplayed Musk's legal moves, suggesting they're part of a broader attempt to undermine OpenAI's progress.
Musk, meanwhile, has publicly criticized Altman and OpenAI's close ties to Microsoft, one of its largest backers, arguing the company that created ChatGPT is no longer acting in the public interest.
Now, Musk's close ties to President Donald Trump add a new undercurrent to the tech CEOs' long-running feud.
When Bloomberg asked Altman if he was worried about Musk's political influence, he said, "Maybe I should. But not particularly. I try to just wake up and think about how we're going to make our technology better."