Because his own artificial intelligence company, xAI, wasn’t included in discussions, Elon Musk threatened to scuttle a deal involving Sam Altman’s OpenAI to build an AI infrastructure center in the United Arab Emirates.
On a call with top officials at G42, the Abu Dhabi-based AI company spearheading the effort, Musk allegedly said that the deal had no chance of winning President Trump’s blessing unless xAI was a part of it, The Wall Street Journal reported, according to people familiar with the matter.
After Musk’s grumbling, the White House reviewed deal terms but still decided to move forward. White House officials told the newspaper that Musk opposed the arrangement because it would benefit Sam Altman.
One official said Musk voiced his displeasure and “relayed his concerns about fairness for all AI companies.”
Musk was one of OpenAI’s co-founders in 2015 and along with Altman was a co-chair. He left in 2018, claiming that continuing his affiliation with OpenAI would be a conflict of interest as Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) was developing AI technology for use in self-driving cars.
However, Altman has previously stated that Musk wanted to take over OpenAI, which the company’s board rejected, prompting him to leave.
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