Over the past 24 hours, we have spent most of our time on the phone trying to get into Elon Musk’s hostile bid for Sam Altman’s Openai. In their company battles (or soap operas), few people can see this as a development. Altman was in Paris at the AI summit and did not even see an offer before he refused.
But what does it mean to bid for hostility to nonprofits? How do board members actually attribute any trust duties owed by investors in the tasks of for-profit subsidiaries and institutions? The man in the middle of all these issues is the board chair Bret Taylor. Taylor has more experience with Musk’s hostile bidding: when Musk purchased, he was chairman of Twitter’s board. We’ve broken down all the following.
Musk’s $97 billion spoiler effort
The latest twist to the Openai legend certainly involves Elon Musk. A consortium led by entrepreneurs made a $97.4 billion offer on the table, essentially buying control of Openai.
This is just the latest fight in the battle between Musk and Sam Altman, two of the biggest figures in Silicon Valley. Showing signs of things going: Altman rejected the offer on X, writing: “No, thank you, but if you want, we’ll buy Twitter for $9.74 billion.” Musk replied: “Scammer.”
Blockbuster bidding complicates Openai’s matters. The startup is about to close a $40 billion fundraising agreement with SoftBank, valued at $300 billion. Altman is also trying to develop much-needed plans to convert nonprofit OpenAI into for-profit entities.
Issues of the responsibilities of the Openai Board of Directors: Since this is a charity, its directors do not have any fiduciary responsibility to maximize returns. Board members include Bret Taylor, who kidnapped Musk on Twitter on his purchase of Twitter, and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers criticized Musk on Monday.
But that’s not the real problem. Musk seems to be trying to force Altman to pay more to turn Openai into a for-profit company. Billions of dollars online.
review: Musk and Altman co-founded Openai in 2015 as a charitable AI lab, but they have been openly arguing for years. Musk filed a series of legal complaints and accused Altman of fleeing the nonprofit’s mission.
Even though Openai started as a nonprofit, it created a for-profit subsidiary to allow it to raise funds. Startup investors push to reorganize an organization into a for-profit entity so that it can control fewer complications. Altman has two years of changes, otherwise Openai will have to return the funds it raises.
This is how the conversion works. Ultraman must compensate OpenAI’s nonprofit sector, which controls the money-making sector. He can pay a one-time fee or grant it a minority stake in a new for-profit business.
But Musk’s bid made the situation even more difficult. Regardless of internal discussions, any internal discussions about the value of Openai nonprofits, Musk sets parity in public. It also puts additional pressure on any regulatory review. In order to obtain approval, any transactions by Altman must be considered equal to or better.
“If it was a legal bid – they thought he could have raised the money – it started to look like a reasonable price for the asset,” said Samuel Brunson, deputy dean of academic affairs at Loyola University in Chicago. Tell Dealbook’s Lauren Hirsch.
But Openai has some defenses. It can question the legitimacy of Musk’s bid. (Remember, Musk is trying to get rid of his proposal to buy Twitter.)
Openai can also challenge Musk whether he has the funds. Musk’s wealth is largely tied to his Tesla stock, meaning he may not have easy access to billions of dollars in cash. Musk’s bid was partially backed by his own AI Venture Xai, which is estimated at $40 billion.
Altman stabbed again this morning. The Openai leader was asked on Bloomberg whether Musk’s actions were driven by insecurity in Xai’s status, saying: “His life may have come from a position of insecurity.”
Ultraman added: “I don’t think he is a happy person. I feel for him.”
This is what happened
The Justice Department wants to file charges against Eric Adams. Manhattan prosecutors were ordered by Washington’s boss to stop the case against the mayor of New York City, who was indicted in September as part of a case of corruption that swept the federal crime. The move raised questions about the independence of federal prosecutors in the Trump era. It is unclear whether Danielle Sassoon, acting head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, will comply with the order.
President Trump has put pressure on Jordan and Egypt to lead Gaza residents. He said that if they refuse to attract the demand of most Palestinians from the territory, it shows his highly controversial (possibly illegal) plan to clear Gaza to redevelop the region, which would cut to the Middle East countries assistance. Additionally, Trump signed an executive order that stopped executing a decades-old ban, which the company bribed foreign officials to win business.
The RMB began to cut thousands of positions. According to Business Insider, the tech giant has begun notifying employees that they will be fired and has been skilled in the warnings of Mark Zuckerberg that underperformers will lose their jobs. Meta has pledged to spend as much as $65 billion in the AI competition this year, increasing the need to offset the investment.
Behind the scenes of the European Large-scale Artificial Intelligence Summit
The famous names of geopolitics and technology gathered at the AI Action Summit, a star-studded gathering held by France to highlight the relevance of Europe in the AI competition.
In a speech Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance urged Europeans to make rules easier. “We believe that overregulation of the AI sector could kill transformative industries,” he said, reflecting the promotion of French President Emmanuel Macron.
For OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the conference focused on the economic opportunities and conditions needed to help the AI industry in other countries thrive. He told Bloomberg that a big question Altman heard said: “Can you make a stargate in our country?” refers to the wide range of data center projects he helped lead.
But there is more behind the scenes. Kevin Roose, a technical columnist for The Times and co-host of Hard Fork Podcast, shared with Dealbook what he heard in the corridors of the Great Palace:
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Big guessing game: What will President Trump do to AI? Some hope Elon Musk runs an AI company and expresses concerns about the powerful AI running Amok, he will convince the president to take a more cautious approach. Others believe that Trump’s venture capitalist and so-called AI accelerator, such as investor Marc Andreessen, will convince him to leave the AI industry alone.
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Europe regrets this. The EU is ahead of the competition in AI regulations, with its powerful AI bill scheduled to take effect next year’s phase. Now, in a report by former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, the report attributes overregulation to weak growth in Europe, which some European leaders fear that the rules would undermine the group’s competitiveness. Compared to large markets like India, several U.S. AI executives told me they still think Europe is a tough business.
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The artificial intelligence doomed agent has been eliminated. There is less discussion on AI risks than in previous summits. In part, this reflects Macron’s intentional decision to play the positive role of technology. It also reflects a bigger shift in the industry, with executives seemingly realizing that it would be easier to get policymakers excited about AI if they aren’t worried about killing them.
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Policymakers don’t feel AGI While some industry leaders claim that from now on, AI, the human-level AI system, may be built immediately, the discussions I heard in Paris lack the urgency you would expect, given these timelines. Policy makers seem unable to grasp how long powerful AI systems may arrive, and how destructive they can be.
“Any hint of a selective moratorium on Congress authorized payments will be a breach of trust and ultimately a form of default. And, our credibility has been lost and will be difficult to regain.”
– Five former Finance Secretary – Bob Rubin, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner, Jack Lew and Janet Yellen – Warn Elon Musk about risks Cost cut plans Interfere with the department’s payment system. That and other efforts by President Trump Destroy the federal government,continue Aroused opposition from the judgeset a Potential Constitutional Crisis.
Tariff strike against Trump
World leaders scramble to respond to President Trump’s latest trade war team Salvo: He has a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports and warns that more measures, including reciprocity tariffs, are on the way.
Trump said the metal tax will “be effective without exception.” However, signs of TIT-FOR-TAT retaliation indicate that new trade barriers are increasing risks that could kill growth and increase costs for companies and consumers.
This is not just China. Last year, Canada, Canada, the largest steel supplier of the EU and the United States, said they were ready to shoot.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen denounced the tariffs this morning as “unreasonable”, adding that they “will trigger companies and proportionate countermeasures.” “Canadians will stand strong and firm if needed,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on the court at a large artificial intelligence event in Paris.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Deputy Economy Minister Cynthia Kiang is expected to arrive in Washington on Tuesday in an attempt to withdraw exemptions for the island’s massive semiconductor industry.
Market winners and losers are emerging. S&P 500 futures in red. Investors’ classic haven Gold continues to trade at record highs.
European auto stocks fell: Germany’s auto industry is considered particularly vulnerable to the Trump trade war.
Trump called the tariff action a “big event”. He has long viewed the U.S. trade deficit as a sign of weakness, and he believes tariffs are a tool to renegotiate trade deals and resume manufacturing efforts. “It’s time to get our great industry back to the United States,” the president said in the Oval Office on Monday.
That could be a difficult task. According to Deutsche Bank, the United States was a major producer of ships, robots and 5G equipment long ago, as the world’s largest Chinese manufacturing energy source.
Speed reading
trade
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It is said to be Stripe, the payment giant, who is said to be weighing another employee stock sales, this time at a valuation of at least $85 billion. (information)
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Elliott Investment Management reportedly amassed 66 Phillips shares worth at least $2.5 billion and plans to push refineries to improve their operations. (WSJ)
Politics, policies and regulations
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Speaker Mike Johnson is said to be seeking support for the new federal budget plan as House Republicans are fighting for how many trillions of dollars to include. (Politico)
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Microsoft is reportedly under investigation by French antitrust regulators whether the technology giant is reducing search results for smaller competitors using its Bing search engine. (Bloomberg)
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