At the Artificial Intelligence Summit held in Paris, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman referred to Elon Musk's $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI's nonprofit portion as an "attempt to slow us down."
"Musk is obviously our competitor," Altman said. "He has raised a lot of money for his AI company, xAI, and is trying to compete with us from a technological standpoint."
Altman jokingly added, "I think Musk lives his life in a constant state of insecurity... I don't think he's a happy person."
Altman immediately rejected Musk's offer in a public statement. It seems likely that OpenAI's board will formally reject the bid as well. However, it is not yet clear when this decision will be made. OpenAI board member Larry Summers said in an interview, "I haven't received any official communication about this offer other than media reports."
