Elon Musk Just Threw an $800 Billion Counterpunch at Sam Altman

If Elon Musk and Sam Altman like one another, they conceal it nicely.

Within the newest flip within the rivalry, the 2 are battling excessive spot on the checklist of the world’s most precious personal firms.

Whereas the 2 cofounded OpenAI collectively again in 2015, the partnership has frayed spectacularly since.

Musk left OpenAI in 2018 and later based rival startup, xAI. Musk or his firm, xAI, has filed lawsuits in opposition to OpenAI.

OpenAI held a secondary share sale in October that valued it at $500 billion, taking the lead from Musk’s SpaceX by a cool $100 billion.

Not one to cede floor to a rival, Musk is now planning his personal secondary share sale at SpaceX, in response to an inside letter to workers seen by a number of retailers. It might worth the corporate at a whopping $800 billion. If that occurs quickly, it means Musk would have solely let Altman maintain the mantle for a few months.

Musk additionally confirmed on X this week that the corporate is exploring a blockbuster initial public offering, which is perhaps the one manner OpenAI can regain its lead as a non-public firm. OpenAI this 12 months restructured its enterprise, which might permit it to additionally pursue its personal eye-watering IPO sooner or later.

Whereas this valuation battle between the 2 billionaires is possibly cringeworthy theater for the common earner, it underscores a big shift: buyers are pouring unprecedented cash into applied sciences as soon as seen as speculative science tasks.

SpaceX, which goals to make life multi-planetary and colonize Mars, and OpenAI, which seeks to develop a theoretical AI that may cause like people, are two of essentially the most seen examples, however they’re a part of a broader surge in frontier-tech valuations. AI, robotics, and protection tech startups have all notched multibillion-dollar valuations prior to now 12 months — bubble be damned.