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Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

reuters.com

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Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#531

Post by 0xy »

root_axis wrote: post #470
_2d30 wrote: post #427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm too smooth brained to see the obvious reason. Would love for someone with more folds to say what the reason is instead of hiding it behind its obviousness. OpenAI-NP can either have a $40B from spinning out OpenAI-P or $97B in cash. In theory, they could literally just go and buy back their stake in OpenAI-P and have $57B left over for other AI endeavors if the valuation of it at $40B were remotely reasonable! If…

Which number is bigger isn't the only calculation to make. Elon has shown himself to be a capricious and distracted steward of the companies he assumes control of. He has a lot of debt and is already over-leveraged on multiple companies as well as his new roles in government. X has plunged in value, Tesla sales are plummeting worldwide, Elon's scorched earth political agenda invites unending controversy that OpenAI a…

X plunging in value is outdated information. EBITDA is double what it was when it was public ($682m to $1.25bn). Revenue is down, but profit is up substantially, due to aggressive cost management.

XAI is valued at another $40bn as well.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#532

Post by IncreasePosts »

TrackerFF wrote: post #177
alpha_squared wrote: post #102

It feels like Musk is single-handedly making a great case for why unlimited accumulation of wealth is a bad idea. It's pretty colorful language, but my mind immediately jumps to "financial terrorist". He's using his enormous amount of wealth and influence as a weapon to bludgeon anyone and anything in his way.

How much of it is tied up to a criminally overvalued Tesla stock though? Sure, Tesla could go to zero and he'd still be a fabulously wealthy man, but with how things are moving - It wouldn't surprise me that he's about the fall down the ranks. Let's see how much power he has once the "richest man in the world" aura fades away.

Musk owns 42% of the $350B SpaceX, so he would still be the 6th richest person in the world(tied with Sergey bring) if TSLA and all his other investments went to $0.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#534

Post by johnnyanmac »

polotics wrote: post #128
minimaxir wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon's response: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1889062013109703009 > Swindler In another tweet chain: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1889063777792069911 > Scam Altman

wow I had no idea the level of discourse on that x website was so low, has it always been like this?

It's been so for a long time amongst casual twitter. I'd say celebrities shitslinging at each otherin public became more common place around the pandemic though. No, Elon's purchase and unbanning of fascists did not help at all.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#535

Post by OnlineGladiator »

decimalenough wrote: post #496
fencepost wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might not be enough data for good statistical significance yet, but IIRC the "die in a fire" probability in a Tesla Refrigerator is something like 17x the Ford Pinto based on current numbers.

Citation needed. Last I checked EVs are much less likely to catch fire than ICEs. (They are, however, much harder to put out if they do.)

https://www.tesla-fire.com/

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#536

Post by johnnyanmac »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #457
polotics wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wow I had no idea the level of discourse on that x website was so low, has it always been like this?

Wow, it's like 12 year old boys or something. Where the adults at?

Many moved to Bluesky. Others on X try to avoid the circus created. A few may even be on Mastodon.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#537

Post by joshuamorton »

_2d30 wrote: post #514
joshuamorton wrote: post #482

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue isn't OpenAI-NP having some stake (which will obviously be the case no matter what), it's Elon having some stake. If OpenAI-NP has a reasonable case to believe that Elon will be a bad steward of the technology and work against their charter ( https://openai.com/charter/ ), they shouldn't sell to him, even if his offer is more than another. Unlike a normal board, the duty-to-shareholder isn't the only duty,…

> If OpenAI-NP has a reasonable case to believe that Elon will be a bad steward of the technology and work against their charter ( https://openai.com/charter/ ), they shouldn't sell to him, even if his offer is more than another. Unlike a normal board, the duty-to-shareholder isn't the only duty, a hostile buyout like with twitter doesn't necessarily work If the OpenAI-NP board sees such existential risk from a chang…

> If the OpenAI-NP board sees such existential risk from a change in leadership of OpenAI-P, how can they in good faith eschew control of it? By removing themselves from control, they would see the exact same risk anyhow. Elon could make a tender offer for the private for-profit entity that its board would be bound to accept in its fiduciary duty to shareholders.

They can make the argument that this offer is not in good faith and that Elon would not make an equivalent offer on an open market. That is, Elon's purpose in this offer is to prevent the sale of OpenAI, not to actually acquire it. Perhaps one could get around this if the cash were put in escrow, but also Elon likely doesn't have 100B in cash and it appears part of the valuation that Elon is putting up is x.ai, so it's quite reasonable to say that x is overvalued in this deal and that it isn't really 90B anyway.

> You can't buy a non-profit. It's their assets he's trying to buy. If OpenAI-NP values their OpenAI-P claims at $40B then that's what Elon would own according to their own beliefs.

From what I can gather you're just mistaken here, Elon seems to be offering 100B for the thing recently valued at 157B (per https://archive.is/59jZ5#selection-637.0-648.0), while what is being sold for 40B is not the entire $157B entity.

Either that, or elon really is getting a controlling interest, and then the argument about Elon being a terrible steward still applies.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#538

Post by tekno45 »

zozbot234 wrote: post #527
z7 wrote: post #511

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand it either. Why is Elon Musk a "terrorist"? And why is this the most upvoted post? Maybe being European limits my ability to comprehend American political rhetoric.

[flagged]

The guy that is privately accumulating as much money as possible is trying to benefit us all?

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#539

Post by jonstewart »

senordevnyc wrote: post #404
yodsanklai wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My hope is that he'll eventually make some big mistakes that will send him to jail. Or does presidential grace give him total immunity?

More likely: Trump lets him slash and burn, then turns on him and throws him under the bus to the American public. Very typical Trump playbook. Maybe he also takes a page from Putin’s playbook and puts him on trial in a very public and humiliating way, sending a clear message to all the other oligarchs.

I kinda like to think that Jeff Bezos is whispering in Trump's ear, hoping for this inevitable outcome, and waiting to pick up the pieces with Blue Origin.

Re: Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI

#540

Post by steve_adams_86 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #251
Hikikomori wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such a child

On one hand, I used to look at these super successful people with a pretty heavy dose of envy. Now I honestly don't, because I find their behavior reprehensible and disgusting, and just so childishly stupid. Granted, I'm fortunate enough that I really don't want for material goods (that's also because I realized I don't need very much), so I might feel differently if I had to slave away at some job I hated. Being a "…

Sam Harris has some of the best, arguably more constructive, critiques of Elon. I guess they used to be some degree of friendly with each other, exchanging text messages and such, but that has since ended.

I’ve generally found his take on things fairly insightful and worth hearing out. I know some people can’t stand him, and I don’t agree with him about everything, but I think it leaves you with a decent sense of what has happened to Elon over the years.

Kara Swisher is also familiar with Elon over the years and her commentary definitely elucidates some of the more bizarre aspects of his new persona. Where it probably came from, how things have shaken out, what he was like before when his quirks were present yet not as obvious, etc.

I mention them because your point about not envying them anymore is deeply justified by what these people have to say. They paint this picture that makes you pity him more than anything. He seems like a very intelligent 15 year old trapped in a man’s body with an incredible nerd complex, always deeply craving to be initiated yet never finding his way there. He throws his money and power around, but inside he’s a deeply troubled, needy, weak little boy. Addicted to twitter, fiending for more attention seemingly every moment. Possibly addicted to hard drugs. What a mess.

I got a laugh out of the mean girls sequel part, haha.

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