Altman Reveals Talks with Musk Broke Down: Gradual Concessions to "Absolute Control"

According to Dynamic Beating monitoring, Altman detailed the early negotiation process with Elon Musk on the Core Memory podcast. He mentioned the four core members—himself, Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, and Musk—all agreed that OpenAI needed to transition to a for-profit company. The negotiation almost reached a conclusion: Musk requested a majority stake, to which they agreed; Musk demanded to be the CEO "to make it clear that he had the final word," and they also agreed. However, Musk ultimately asked for "absolute control over OpenAI," which became the breaking point. In Altman's words: "No one person should have control over the entire future, no matter who that person is."

Altman referred to this version as something "we've never talked about publicly over the years," and the upcoming lawsuit "leaves us no choice." He sees the trial as an "opportunity to tell a story" but is concerned that Musk might withdraw the lawsuit before the trial, saying, "then we won't have the opportunity to explain all this." The lawsuit between the two parties is scheduled to go to trial on April 27, with Musk claiming $79 billion to $134 billion.