•Meta platforms begin cutting jobs, Nigeria affected
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has rejected a $97.4 billion play by an Elon Musk-led consortium to take charge of the non-profit group that controls the AI company, heating a longstanding rivalry between the two tech moguls.
The news, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, marks an attempt by Musk to block OpenAI’s ongoing bid towards a for-profit structure and return it to its original nonprofit mission. The group of bidders includes Musk’s AI company xAI, as well as investment firms Baron Capital Group and Emmanuel Capital.
Altman swiftly rejected the offer, stating on Musk-owned platform X: “No thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
According to Reuters, the OpenAI CEO also informed employees that the company remains committed to its existing for-profit push. Musk responded by calling Altman a swindler.
Sources told Reuters that if Musk were to proceed with the acquisition, he would need to secure sizeable funding, possibly utilising his stakes in Tesla or SpaceX.
Recall that in 2024, OpenAI initiated a restructuring of the company, making its for-profit unit independent from its nonprofit parent to boost its ability to raise funds.
Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI, left the organisation in 2018 over clashes with Altman and has since heavily criticised the company’s revised business model. For instance, he urged lawmakers in two U.S. states to push OpenAI into auctioning large stakes in its business.
The pair also publicly clashed over U.S. President Donald Trump-backed joint venture Stargate, a $500 billion AI infrastructure initiative involving OpenAI. The tech moguls took to X last month to spar over Musk’s allegations about the project’s financial viability.
Meanwhile, Meta has started a round of employee layoffs as part of its plan to shift its workforce to high-priority areas such as AI.
Bloomberg reported thousands of Meta Platforms staff received email notifications they were being let go. The news agency stated that U.S.-based employees will receive severance packages involving 16 weeks of salary and two weeks of pay for each year of their employment.
Eligible staff will still receive bonuses, and the company is awarding stock, Bloomberg wrote.
Meta Platforms CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, informed employees last month the company planned to cull 5 per cent of its workforce, around 3,600 people, explaining staff in the US would receive notice on February 10 and international workers at a later date.
On its Q4 2024 earnings call, CFO Susan Li stated it had more than 74,000 employees at the end of December, a 10 per cent increase on 2023.
She noted staff pay would be the next-largest driver of expense growth after infrastructure in 2025 as the company shifts more resources toward generative AI, its Reality Labs division, infrastructure monetisation and regulation and compliance.
