Elon Musk vs. OpenAI: A Battle Over Profit, Power, and Mission
“...a 12 person board...probably more like 16 if this board really ends up deciding the fate of the world...”
Let’s rewind to December 2015.
OpenAI was born—a nonprofit with a bold goal: harness artificial intelligence (AI) to benefit humanity. You know, keep it in check so we don’t end up living in *Terminator 5: The Rise of Siri.* One of the co-founders, Elon Musk, was all in. But Elon being Elon, he had questions. Specifically: “Why are we doing this nonprofit thing? Wouldn’t a standard company with a buddy nonprofit on the side work better?” Cue the first eyebrow raise.
“However, we felt his proposal was not compatible with the mission, saying: “The current structure provides you with a path where you end up with unilateral absolute control over the AGI. You stated that you don’t want to control the final AGI, but during this negotiation, you’ve shown to us that absolute control is extremely important to you.” As we told Elon, “The goal of OpenAI is to make the future good and to avoid an AGI dictatorship.””
Fast forward to early 2017. OpenAI’s team was diving deeper into the math and realizing something big: building artificial general intelligence (AGI)—the kind of AI that could outthink us all—was going to cost not millions, but billions. Cue the second eyebrow raise. How do you get billions? Not from bake sales. Musk and the team started thinking about pivoting to a for-profit model to bring in the cash. By the summer of 2017, the consensus was clear: going for-profit was the way forward.
But then, Plot Twist! In the fall of 2017, Musk proposed a plan that made everyone else’s eyebrows practically jump off their faces. He wanted majority ownership, total control, and to crown himself CEO of this new for-profit venture. Oh, and he already created a company—"Open Artificial Intelligence Technologies, Inc."—just in case anyone wanted to skip the voting part. The rest of OpenAI said, “Uh, no thanks.” Handing the keys of humanity’s AI future to one person? Hard pass.
By early 2018, things got awkward. Musk resigned as co-chair, packed up his proverbial Tesla, and left OpenAI. The nonprofit-turned-for-profit transformation kept rolling though, and by 2019, OpenAI unveiled OpenAI LP, a “capped-profit” structure—basically a way to make money without feeling too much like a Silicon Valley stereotype.
The Sequel
But if you thought that was the end, welcome to the sequel. In 2023, Musk re-entered the AI chat, launching xAI—a competitor to OpenAI. By 2024, the gloves were off. Musk filed a lawsuit accusing OpenAI of abandoning its altruistic roots and chasing profits. OpenAI clapped back, revealing old receipts that showed Musk had initially supported the for-profit pivot…until he didn’t get to run the show.
Now OpenAI insists they’re still laser-focused on their mission to ensure AGI benefits everyone, not just shareholders. And Musk? He’s off in his own corner of the AI ring, throwing legal punches and building his own vision of the future.
The moral of the story? When billionaires and humanity’s fate mix, you get a drama worthy of a Netflix miniseries. Stay tuned.