Musk Reveals OpenAI Once Offered Him Shares, Which He Declined
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On February 20th, foreign media reported that after OpenAI's AI chatbot ChatGPT became a sensation, Musk, as a co-founder and early donor of OpenAI, has drawn significant attention. On March 14th last year, following OpenAI's release of the next-generation natural language processing model GPT-4, Musk, along with Wozniak and thousands of other industry professionals and public figures, called for AI labs to pause training more powerful models for six months. After Musk founded his own AI company, he became a competitor to OpenAI.
Regardless of whether Musk left OpenAI to establish a new AI company or became a competitor to OpenAI, it does not change the fact that he was a co-founder of OpenAI, nor can it deny that they once had a honeymoon period.
According to the latest foreign media reports, during a recent interaction with fans, Musk revealed that OpenAI had offered him shares, but he believed accepting them might be unethical/illegal, and he was unsure whether OpenAI's structure was legal.
However, Musk only mentioned that OpenAI had intended to offer him shares without specifying when or the exact quantity. As a currently hot player in the field of artificial intelligence, OpenAI was actually founded not long ago in 2015 by Elon Musk, current CEO Sam Altman, and others. Initially, it was a non-profit organization focused on AI research and development.
However, just three years after its establishment, Musk left OpenAI and resigned from the board of directors. Although he claimed at the time that his departure was to avoid potential future conflicts (as Tesla also focuses on AI), Musk later stated that he left due to disagreements with OpenAI's team.
Considering Musk was a co-founder and donor of OpenAI, if they had offered him equity, the amount would likely have been substantial. Last week, foreign media reported that according to a newly signed stock sale agreement allowing employees to cash out shares, OpenAI's valuation has exceeded $80 billion—nearly triple the $29 billion valuation from just over nine months ago. Had Musk accepted equity at the time, it would now represent significant wealth. However, compared to Musk's current net worth on the billionaire rankings, there would still be a notable gap.