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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

#761

Post by h0l0cube »

paulddraper wrote: post #748
h0l0cube wrote: post #732

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> built his way > each of which make groundbreaking products and services It's like you didn't read a word I said. But to respond to your claim, which I've heard many times before – including from Paul Graham. Maybe he's some genius at allocating capital in your eyes or something, but I don't think his investment decisions were even that radical, but they are within the conservative circles of people who usually have…

Whose investment decisions are radical (and good) by your definition?

The argument was put for that Elon is an exceptional mind when it comes to capital allocation. My counter-argument is that to have Elon's success, you don't need such an exceptional mind, but it may seem exceptional due to the selection bias of people who typically have accrued wealth. There may be vastly more people with such purported competency of capital allocation, but we'd simply never know because they are less likely to find themselves wealthy in the way that Elon did.

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

#762

Post by h0l0cube »

Geee wrote: post #740
h0l0cube wrote: post #732

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> built his way > each of which make groundbreaking products and services It's like you didn't read a word I said. But to respond to your claim, which I've heard many times before – including from Paul Graham. Maybe he's some genius at allocating capital in your eyes or something, but I don't think his investment decisions were even that radical, but they are within the conservative circles of people who usually have…

It's not an opinion. The fact that he is the richest man in the world is the proof that his decisions have been succesful. And obviously it's not luck because of repeated success.

You're obviously too young to have observed the dotcom bubble blow up and collapse, so I fully understand why you're drinking the kool aid. I guess we'll see how things pan out.

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

#763

Post by jodrellblank »

godelski wrote: post #727
jodrellblank wrote: post #582

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Where it is nearly (if not entirely) impossible to spend such sums of money.” I’ve been looking at the idea of a tunnel between the UK and Ireland. Recent rough estimates were €15Bn and that probably didn’t include high speed trains on each side. A new city, a 500km/h maglev line, paying spacex to build a moon base, launching a billion dollar prize fund for room temperature superconductor or graphene space elevato…

I don't feel this is a great response tbh. While you're comparing money, you're not differentiating how government money is different than corporate money, which are both different from personal money. Even if a person wants to build a tunnel of that magnitude, absolutely no way are they going to do it out of their pocket, at worst it would be through corporate funds. Its not like these guys are spending their own mo…

> I'm saying it is essentially impossible to spend these amounts of money on things that personally benefit you

This bit changes my reply, I have to agree with that. The rest though - yes the normal way to build a tunnel would be to make sure it will be financially profitable and get investors, but what I'm saying is that a UK-Ireland tunnel would not be profitable. One estimate said it would cost double the UK-France tunnel but get 20% of the use. Nobody would "invest", it would have to be funded personal money as a passion project just because they want to see it exist in the world.

> The problem is, your money makes money too fast. For most things, faster than you can spend it. Every second you aren't spending it, it grows.

Nice problem to have, lol. Seems like it would be possible to invent as many megaprojects as one wanted in order to get rid of enough money, but maybe it isn't. Maybe the limit is how much attention one person can have. Maybe the balance of trying to start enough to use all your money without bankrupting yourself if one overruns costs and then never finishing them all, would be too hard.

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

#764

Post by croes »

chrisco255 wrote: post #685
beAbU wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not, for a single second, believe that Musk is doing this for altruistic reasons.

Nobody is doing anything for altruistic reasons, including and especially Sam Altman.

Yeah sure, in the pandemic all people just did it for the money. Same with all the voluntary fire fighters and all the other voluntary work.

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

#768

Post by eaglelamp »

ChatGPT gov launched in January. Musk is using DOGE to hoover up tons of government data and reportedly using 'AI' technology to analyze it. There seems to be a rush to insert 'AI' into government processes, and with the government, unlike the consumer market, being the first to market will build a significant moat.

Of course this will lead to conflict between Altman and Musk as they rush to entrench themselves within the current administration. This buyout offer could be an effective tactic to delay the pending funding from Softbank, and in turn the kick off of stargate, while DOGE gets up to speed. Even a short delay could be impactful in the early days of an aggressive and fickle administration.

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

#769

Post by rastignack »

margalabargala wrote: post #288
dustingetz wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

was looking for a musk margin call in 2023, no such luck, now he’s VP and markets are still fake

We'll see. After throwing out a few Nazi salutes, Tesla sales have been tanking in Europe.

I don’t think we need to lie or be disingenuous about this gesture, Elon is not known for his hate of Jewish people. I think this obviously fake take helps him.

There is enough to criticize in his actions.

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

#770

Post by vjk800 »

yodsanklai wrote: post #381
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.

> "financial terrorist" As a thought experiment, I like to wonder what would be the maximal amount of damage to humanity an extremely wealthy person could do entirely legally. Or if not damage, just trolling. For instance, writing X on the moon or something like that.

Buy a lot of forest, cut it down, and replace it with a smooth concrete surface.
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