Musk-led group makes $97B bid for control of OpenAI • Hacker News Board

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

#551

Post by HelloMcFly » Tue, Feb 11, 2025, 2:07 AM UTC

togetheragainor wrote: post #545

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 American left, who hates Musk because he’s an outspoken and unrepentant capitalist (among other reasons)

Ah yes, all the criticism I hear about Musk from my liberal friends has everything to do with his "unrepentant capitalism".

You either have a small or very peculiar social circle. Your comment isn't technically wrong since you were thoughtful enough to add "(among other reasons)" but it almost beggars belief that you'd be serious here. Do I really have to spell out why the left hate Musk?

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

#552

Post by munificent » Tue, Feb 11, 2025, 2:09 AM UTC

UltraSane wrote: post #492

sangnoir wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He always had it? Money give influence naturally. Not as much as he has now: he was famously frustrated by the California state government's Covid lockdown mandates, and was pretty powerless against them. That frustration is probably what led him to buy influence in the Trump campaign,and later administration. Money can take you so far, political power will take you further for imposing your will on others. The "Sh…

" By moving much faster than the bureaucracy and legal system can respond, the question on whether he has the power or authority to do the things he's doing may become moot." This is a risky strategy if it is later determined that Musk broke laws with DOGE and is arrested and convicted.

The strategy has worked just fine for Trump for the past decade.

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

#553

Post by aswanson » Tue, Feb 11, 2025, 2:09 AM UTC

jiggawatts wrote: post #380

gonzo41 wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Australia. Musk drove everyone in BYD's arms.

The weak Aussie dollar and the low cost of BYD cars is what did that. Also, Tesla stopped selling the Model S here.

I'm pretty sympathetic on protecting the country from CCP subsidized market capture, but at this point we need to let BYD sell here. It would lower vehicle prices and knock off tesla. Both of which need to happen.

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

#554

Post by AnimalMuppet » Tue, Feb 11, 2025, 2:10 AM UTC

asadotzler wrote: post #392

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who knows what prompted him to make the bid . The judges forced him to follow through on it when he was trying to get out of it.

do you understand how bids work?

"Bid" was hypothesis's word, not mine, so whatever "gotcha" you think you're springing on me, send it elsewhere.

Yes, I know how bids work, at least approximately. It wasn't a bid in the strict sense. It was an offer to buy, which Twitter accepted, and then Musk tried to withdraw the offer (because of too much of the traffic being bots, IIRC). The judge did not allow Musk to withdraw, because there was no such "subject to" in his offer.

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

#555

Post by ivewonyoung » Tue, Feb 11, 2025, 2:11 AM UTC

blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #504

ak_111 wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He single handedly also vindicated one of the most authoritarian regimes - China - in how it slapped Jack Ma as soon as he started entering politics and gaining influence beyond tech entrepreneurship.

I am pretty disturbed by how musk is silent on issues concerning China and the CCP. To me it is a big risk that Tesla depends on access to the Chinese market to justify their valuation. Musk clearly will not say anything even slightly negative about the CCP, even though he personally values free speech and other liberal values. So can he really be trusted with control of companies like SpaceX? In fact, I am worried a…

> Musk clearly will not say anything even slightly negative about the CCP, even though he personally values free speech and other liberal values. So can he really be trusted with control of companies like SpaceX?

He literally posted an AI generated video of Xi in Winnie the Pooh garb.

> How else do you explain Trump delaying enforcement of the TikTok ban

Because he wanted people to watch his inauguration on TikTok. Plus the intention was always that TikTok would be bought by a US company, not to shut it down entirely given the extensive number of people who rely it on both for income and for entertainment. The issue was that the Supreme Court ruled on the takedown being legal just 2 days before the ban deadline, giving no time for an acquisition. Even Joe Biden refused to enforce the ban on TikTok on the last day of his presidency.

> If anything he should be going a lot harder against China

Tariffs on China just kicked in.

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

#556

Post by lucasfdacunha » Tue, Feb 11, 2025, 2:12 AM UTC

averageRoyalty wrote: post #34

With first mover advantage disappearing for OpenAI and very good alternatives appearing, one wonders how long they can sustain a multi billion dollar per year loss[0]. The launch of ChatGPT was earth shaking, but what have they done since that impacts or excites the average consumer? Does their revenue even come from the average consumer, or primarily from API users that will lift and shift to a viable competitor? I…

I don't think you guys understand the reach of chatGPT. I live in Brazil and I was in line at a restaurant when I saw an older lady (around 60~70 years old) chatting with chatGPT on her smartphone. That's when I realized that chatGPT burst the bubble and by a lot.

We in the tech bubble know all the competitors and all the other products related to AI, but I guarantee that 98% of the rest of the world just knows chatGPT and some of them use it, even people who struggle to turn the Bluetooth on/off.

It's really hard to replicate this, I'm pretty sure this lady will never have the Claude or DeepSeek app installed on her phone, but she will be using chatGPT in the meantime.

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

#557

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Feb 11, 2025, 2:12 AM UTC

jiggawatts wrote: post #380

gonzo41 wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Australia. Musk drove everyone in BYD's arms.

The weak Aussie dollar and the low cost of BYD cars is what did that. Also, Tesla stopped selling the Model S here.

[deleted]

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

#558

Post by AdieuToLogic » Tue, Feb 11, 2025, 2:13 AM UTC

zozbot234 wrote: post #219

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.

> He's using his enormous amount of wealth and influence as a weapon to bludgeon anyone and anything in his way. Using your "enormous amount of wealth" as a weapon means you'll be frittering away that wealth very quickly. Especially since others will be inclined to take the other side of the bet as soon as they catch on to it happening.

>> He's using his enormous amount of wealth and influence as a weapon to bludgeon anyone and anything in his way.

> Using your "enormous amount of wealth" as a weapon means you'll be frittering away that wealth very quickly.

That has not been the case throughout history. To the contrary, using "your 'enormous amount of wealth' as a weapon" has been effectively employed by those possessing same for as long as there has been an agreed upon definition of "wealth."

See any reasonable definition of power.

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

#559

Post by packetlost » Tue, Feb 11, 2025, 2:15 AM UTC

UltraSane wrote: post #492

sangnoir wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He always had it? Money give influence naturally. Not as much as he has now: he was famously frustrated by the California state government's Covid lockdown mandates, and was pretty powerless against them. That frustration is probably what led him to buy influence in the Trump campaign,and later administration. Money can take you so far, political power will take you further for imposing your will on others. The "Sh…

" By moving much faster than the bureaucracy and legal system can respond, the question on whether he has the power or authority to do the things he's doing may become moot." This is a risky strategy if it is later determined that Musk broke laws with DOGE and is arrested and convicted.

Until he's pardoned by the president.

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

#560

Post by godelski » Tue, Feb 11, 2025, 2:15 AM UTC

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.

  > How much of it is tied up to a criminally overvalued Tesla stock though?

I don't know that, but I can say that he has an absurd amount liquidated.

  - Dec 15 2022: Sells 22m shares for $3.6bn
    https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/15/investing/elon-musk-tesla-stock-sale/index.html
  - Nov 4-8 2022: Sells 19.5m shares for $4bn 
    https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-business-climate-and-environment-9ab47198753931c7bea91f6e678f1d17
  - Feb 2022: Elon has $11bn tax bill from a $23bn taxable income. Article discusses 2 sells
    https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/10/investing/elon-musk-tesla-zero-tax-bill/index.html
    - This article says notes $1.52 billion between 2014-2018
      https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/20/elon-musk-says-he-will-pay-over-11-billion-in-taxes-this-year.html

So I would assume he has north of $30bn outside Tesla. Which that alone would make him near top 60 on Forbes's Billionaire list.

I believe we can agree that this sum of money falls into the category of "never will be poor." Where it is nearly (if not entirely) impossible to spend such sums of money. Remember, we're talking about a sum of money where you could easily line up $100 bills all the way across California, from top to bottom[0].

[0] A bill is 155.956mm x 66.294mm (0.155956m x 0.066294m) and CA's dimensions are 400km x 1220km. So 1220000 / 0.066294 = 18.403e6. You need ~$18.4m to do this with singles, $368.01 with $20's, and $1.84bn with $100's. So $30bn is 16 rows (2.5 meters wide) and $391bn (current Forbes value) is 212.5 rows, or 33 meters wide. A bill is 0.11mm thick if you want to calculate height. Maybe someone can come up with another fun visualization, because this one is well beyond imaginable already.