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OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

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Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#61

Post by jstummbillig »

nabla9 wrote: post #53

This kind of stuff is the reason why Altman was fired. The board lost trust for his honesty from many small things that kept accumulating. Altman is back on condition that there is a investigation.

What is "this kind of stuff"? I am confused as to what the accusation is. I understand that you should be looked at closely and scrutinised when there is a possible conflict of interest, but why would it be okay to vaguely assume foul play when it could just be someone who is committed to making something work? Better/more infrastructure is needed, as is evident every time I send a query to openai/ms. What is bad about trying to make it happen yourself, if you think you can, specially if your other businesses capabilities depend on it?

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#63

Post by jaggederest »

ekabod wrote: post #59
jaggederest wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not exactly what I'm saying. I'm saying that it doesn't look like he has undue influence over the deal, rather than that he's not trying to make a buck. No claim about his honesty or lack thereof, but it doesn't look like a puppet constructed solely to enrich himself.

How do you know this startup didn't need this deal to survive or advertise itself?

I definitely don't. I just read the article and went "Whoah is he just openly cutting himself a check?" and it does not seem that way. If I were him, I would recuse myself from the whole process due to my investment, but we have no insider knowledge of how it went down. I've really been unhappy with the transition from nonprofit to for-profit subsidiary, so obviously I disagree pretty thoroughly, but fundamentally this deal isn't immediately disqualifying.

I do wonder if this kind of thing was related to his ouster-and-return, but it happened in 2019 so it would need to be a pattern of behavior beyond what we see in the article.

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#64

Post by terminous »

tinyhouse wrote: post #57

The guy doesn't even hold personal shares at OpenAI, which could've been worth billions if he did (he's a cofounder and CEO to remind you, so it's unheard of), and you're blaming him for buying chips from a startup he made a small investment in? Seriously. Maybe go after the CEOs who rob their employees and take all the money to themselves. Just to be clear, I never met the guy and have no affiliation with OpenAI.

I don't understand your argument. So corruption is OK because he isn't getting paid as much as he could be? That's like saying embezzlement is OK if you're underpaid.

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#66

Post by andrew_ »

nabla9 wrote: post #53

This kind of stuff is the reason why Altman was fired. The board lost trust for his honesty from many small things that kept accumulating. Altman is back on condition that there is a investigation.

Imagine if Elon's companies sourced from each other. The travesty!

I see nothing wrong here.

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#67

Post by nabla9 »

jstummbillig wrote: post #61
nabla9 wrote: post #53

This kind of stuff is the reason why Altman was fired. The board lost trust for his honesty from many small things that kept accumulating. Altman is back on condition that there is a investigation.

What is "this kind of stuff"? I am confused as to what the accusation is. I understand that you should be looked at closely and scrutinised when there is a possible conflict of interest, but why would it be okay to vaguely assume foul play when it could just be someone who is committed to making something work? Better/more infrastructure is needed, as is evident every time I send a query to openai/ms. What is bad abo…

>What is bad about trying to make it happen yourself,

"So committed I can't be honest"??

If you can't be honest and inform people of possible conflicts of interest, it is bad and you know yourself it's bad.

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#68

Post by loceng »

keep_reading wrote: post #56
nabla9 wrote: post #53

This kind of stuff is the reason why Altman was fired. The board lost trust for his honesty from many small things that kept accumulating. Altman is back on condition that there is a investigation.

You don't know that for a fact, you're speculating

Ironically you're making an assumption, speculating, and maybe they do know that for a fact - but we just don't simply know why they'd know, or if it's true. The best you can say is we don't know for sure.

But considering the board initially fired him for being dishonest/lying in an ongoing fashion, and the board wouldn't do the firing without evidence they could back it up with, it's not so hard to extrapolate that a return would be conditional on a deeper investigation and "full" cooperation.

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#69

Post by loceng »

andrew_ wrote: post #66
nabla9 wrote: post #53

This kind of stuff is the reason why Altman was fired. The board lost trust for his honesty from many small things that kept accumulating. Altman is back on condition that there is a investigation.

Imagine if Elon's companies sourced from each other. The travesty! I see nothing wrong here.

You don't think that's at least a bit of an apples to oranges comparison?

Re: OpenAI Committed to Buying $51M of AI Chips from a Startup Backed by Sam Altman

#70

Post by DalasNoin »

jaggederest wrote: post #41

I'm as skeptical of OpenAI's dealings as anyone, but a $1m investment in a chip startup doesn't sound like he's a material owner. They've raised $33 million so far, minus the whole Prosperity7 divestiture kerfluffle (national security made a saudi-backed fund sell), so I'd be surprised if he owned in excess of 5%. It looks to me like exactly the kind of investment I would expect a wealthy angel to make in startups re…

I tried to find estimates of Sam's net worth and found estimates from 250-700 million usd. However, it seems that most of his net worth is bound up in equity in private companies and startups[1]. 1 million usd could be a very substantial part of his liquid net worth.

[1] https://www.thestreet.com/investors/sam-altman-net-worth-how...

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