So, what Kendrick is beefing with Drake, it seems. Godzilla might be battling King Kong. King Kong ain’t got nothing on him. So, who’s Godzilla and who’s King Kong? It’s hard to say. But, it seems like OpenAI CEO Samuel Altman & Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk. Which, if you’re keeping track, is widely different from the relationship the two had when the two were talking about video games nearly a decade ago for Y Combinator.
Some may not know that OpenAI was originally founded as a non-profit dedicated to making sure AI benefits humanity and a lot more may not know that Elon was a co-founder and an early backer of the AI goliath. Though, in 2018, citing disagreements over its direction and governance, Elon walked away. Since then, OpenAI was said to have shifted to a capped-profit model, limiting investor returns to 100x their initial investment. Elon’s not too happy with that shift.
In 2024, it seemed like discontent became outright hostility, when a lawsuit was filed by Elon against OpenAI alleging that it had abandoned its core mission to have ambitions that seem more profit-driven. That seems to still be ongoing.
And in February 2025, Elon and a group of investors made a bid of about $97 billion to acquire OpenAI, which its Board was said to have unanimously rejected. The message seems to be: OpenAI’s not for sale and Elon’s influence is not welcome.
The timing is especially interesting, because Elon seems to have become a close pal slash whisperer to Donald in his Trump 2.0 era, while Samuel seems to be trying to, also, position himself as a policymaker advisor. The current US administration might be bullish on AI. In January 2025, Donald spoke at the WEF in Davos via video and spoke about an aim to make the US a world capital of AI.
The beef seems to be getting even somewhat personal. Samuel was said to have remarked that Elon’s behaviour is driven more by insecurity and frustration, rather than a genuine commitment to some noble AI mission. And Elon has called the OpenAI CEO “Scam Altman”, playing a clip of Samuel claiming to have no personal equity in OpenAI. It seems to be becoming too ad hominem.
On the other hand, Elon seems to be trying to position himself as the last line of defense against unregulated AI, which could lead to an apocalyptic Terminator-esque situation. Plus, Elon, also, launched a venture called xAI to develop “truth-seeking” AI, whatever that means. Which may be why Samuel alleges Elon’s actions as a competitor trying to slow OpenAI down.
Would Elon really have wanted to have OpenAI go in a different direction? Does he have a different vision of AI safety? What’s Grok doing differently, if at all?
Though, is there some parallel universe where that would have worked? Imagine if one of the biggest social media platforms in the world – X – acquired OpenAI. Whoa, right?
The way Elon runs SpaceX or Tesla or X, some might consider him to be a wartime CEO, who’s fast, aggressive, making tough decisions, focused on survival and probably having little patience for bureaucracy, which might be interesting considering DOGE is a new feather in his cap. Efficiency over hierarchy, lean team for iteration, move fast and break things dialled to 11. Of course, how things actually are might be different.
OpenAI may not give that sense to the everyday person. Sure, it may have some commercial ambitions, but the culture seems very research- and academic-focused, where consensus drives decision-making. Or, maybe, that’s all an image we believe.
But, OpenAI under X would definitely have some interesting cultural and operational friction. Would Elon fire a substantial chunk of OpenAI, the way he did for X? And since Elon has some powerful ties to the existing US government, would OpenAI under his helm mean a stronger focus on AI applications for military intelligence or space? Maybe, “OpenX” – let’s workshop the new name – could be positioned as a national asset for AI supremacy against China.
Could this finally properly fulfill Elon’s ambitions to make X a true financial platform with AI being a strong lever? With how OpenAI is said to have evolved, could there be a focus on creating AI-powered personal finance advisors or tools or risk analysis? The FinTech possibilities with OpenAI might be endless!
Elon’s had some trouble with advertisers for X, which may be why he brought in Linda Yaccarino. Would Elon, as the new jefe, make OpenAI’s enterprise customers reconsider? Would Perplexity or other AI platforms step up and be forced to further innovate?
And if OpenAI relies on Microsoft Azure for cloud infrastructure, would Elon want that if it’s under him? Would that bolster him to build out his own AI infrastructure with Tesla Dojo? Could Starlink play a role there?
On the other hand, if OpenAI becomes part of X, could there be a mass exodus of researchers? The folks from Anthropic or DeepMind or Meta AI or other AI platforms might get giddy with excitement.So, Kendrick is beefing with Drake, it seems. Godzilla might be battling King Kong. King Kong ain’t got nothing on him. So, who’s Godzilla and who’s King Kong? It’s hard to say. But, it seems like OpenAI CEO Samuel Altman & Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk are duking it out. Which, if you’re keeping track, is widely different from the relationship the two had when the two were talking about video games nearly a decade ago for Y Combinator.
Some may not know that OpenAI was originally founded as a non-profit dedicated to making sure AI benefits humanity and a lot more may not know that Elon is named as a co-founder and an early backer of the AI goliath. Though, in 2018, citing disagreements over its direction and governance, Elon walked away. Since then, OpenAI was said to have shifted to a capped-profit model, limiting investor returns to 100x their initial investment. Elon’s not too happy with that shift.
In 2024, it seemed like discontent became outright hostility, when a lawsuit was filed by Elon against OpenAI alleging that it had abandoned its core mission to have ambitions that seem more profit-driven. That seems to still be ongoing.
And in February 2025, Elon and a group of investors made a bid of about $97 billion to acquire OpenAI, which its Board was said to have unanimously rejected. The message seems to be: OpenAI’s not for sale and Elon’s influence is not welcome. Don’t go chasing OpenAI, just stick to the X that you’re used to.
The timing is especially interesting, because Elon seems to have become a close pal slash whisperer to Donald in his Trump 2.0 era, while Samuel seems to be trying to, also, position himself as a policymaker advisor. The current US administration might be bullish on AI. In January 2025, Donald spoke at the WEF in Davos via video and spoke about an aim to make the US a world capital of AI. Though, Elon’s influence over the Donald might be waning with his business interests taking a hit, so Elon might exit DOGE entirely.
The beef seems to be getting even somewhat personal. Samuel was said to have remarked that Elon’s behaviour is driven more by insecurity and frustration, rather than a genuine commitment to some noble AI mission. And Elon has called the OpenAI CEO “Scam Altman”, playing a clip of Samuel claiming to have no personal equity in OpenAI. It seems to be becoming too ad hominem.
On the other hand, Elon seems to be trying to position himself as the last line of defense against unregulated AI, which he thinks could lead to an apocalyptic Terminator-esque situation. Plus, Elon, also, launched a venture called xAI to develop “truth-seeking” AI, whatever that means. Which may be why Samuel alleges Elon has ulterior motives as a competitor trying to slow OpenAI down.
Would Elon really have wanted to have OpenAI go in a different direction? Does he have a different vision of AI safety? What’s Grok doing differently, if at all?
Though, is there some parallel universe where that would have worked? Imagine if one of the biggest social media platforms in the world – X – acquired OpenAI. Whoa, right?
The way Elon runs SpaceX or Tesla or X, some might consider him to be a wartime CEO, who’s fast, aggressive, making tough decisions, focused on survival and probably having little patience for bureaucracy, which might be interesting considering how DOGE is a new feather in his cap as long as he’s part of it.
Efficiency over hierarchy, lean team for iteration, move fast and break things dialled to an 11. Of course, how things actually are might be different.
OpenAI may not give that sense to the everyday person. Sure, it may have some commercial ambitions, but the culture seems very research- and academic-focused, where consensus drives decision-making. Or, maybe, that’s all an image we believe.
But, OpenAI under X would definitely have some interesting cultural and operational friction. Would Elon fire a substantial chunk of OpenAI, the way he did for X? And since Elon has some powerful ties to the existing US government, would OpenAI under his helm mean a stronger focus on AI applications for military intelligence or space? Maybe, “OpenX” – let’s workshop the new name – could be positioned as a national asset for AI supremacy against China. Is Samuel already trying to do that with OpenAI while discussing with US policymakers?
Or could this finally properly fulfill Elon’s ambitions to make X a true financial platform with AI being a strong lever? With how OpenAI is said to have evolved, could there be a focus on creating AI-powered personal finance advisors or tools or risk analysis? The FinTech possibilities with OpenAI might be endless! Elon seems to have been obsessed with the 24th letter of the English alphabet for more than 24 years. Will this truly fulfill his dreams?
And Elon’s had some trouble with advertisers for X, which may be why he brought in Linda Yaccarino. Would Elon, as the new jefe, make OpenAI’s enterprise customers reconsider? Would Perplexity or other AI platforms step up and be forced to further innovate?
And if OpenAI relies on Microsoft Azure for cloud infrastructure, would Elon want that if it’s under him? Would that bolster him to build out his own AI infrastructure with Tesla Dojo? Could Starlink play a role there?
On the other hand, if OpenAI becomes part of X, could there be a mass exodus of researchers? The folks from Anthropic or DeepMind or Meta AI or other AI platforms might get giddy with excitement.
Is OpenAI under X a reality you’d want to be part of? Or is this a scenario that doesn’t deserve a blue checkmark?
