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Grzegorz Wajda/SOPA/Getty Images
- OpenAI recently raised $6.6 billion in its openai-backed-startup-teases-new-humanoid-robot/” title=”Meet Figure 02: The Revolutionary Humanoid Robot Unveiled by OpenAI-Backed Startup Figure!”>latest funding round.
- The organization requested that investors refrain from supporting its competitors, including Elon Musk’s xAI.
- Musk has publicly labeled OpenAI as “evil.”
Elon Musk Critiques OpenAI Amidst Funding Success
Once again, Elon Musk is voicing his criticisms towards the artificial intelligence firm he co-founded.
This past Wednesday, OpenAI announced it had successfully completed a record-breaking funding round totaling $6.6 billion at an impressive valuation of $157 billion, solidifying its status as the world’s most valuable startup.
The funding round attracted prominent investors such as Thrive Capital, Microsoft, and Nvidia; however, it came with a condition that displeased Musk: investors were asked not to support any of OpenAI’s competitors.
As reported by anonymous sources to Reuters, OpenAI sought an exclusive agreement from its investors to avoid backing five specific rival companies.
The identified competitors included Perplexity AI, Glean AI, Anthropic AI, Ilya Sutskever’s Safe Superintelligence project and xAI—Musk’s own venture known for developing Grok.
The Financial Times also confirmed this exclusivity request from OpenAI.
Musk’s Response and Ongoing Tensions with OpenAI
Musk reacted on X (formerly Twitter) by criticizing OpenAI’s request multiple times with the statement “OpenAI is evil.”
Since departing from OpenAI in 2018, tensions between Musk and both the company and CEO Sam Altman have escalated significantly. In February 2020, he publicly condemned the organization for lacking transparency and failing to prioritize safety measures effectively.
A month later in March 2020, he filed a lawsuit against them alleging they had strayed from their foundational mission of creating beneficial AI for humanity; however he later withdrew this suit. In August of that same year,Musk initiated another legal action against OpenAI claiming that executives misled him into co-founding the company under false pretenses.
No comments have been provided by either Musk or representatives from OpenAI regarding these developments at this time.
The Rarity of Exclusive Funding Agreements
While requests for exclusive funding rounds are uncommon within venture capital circles according to insights shared with The Financial Times , they are not entirely unheard of. For instance,Uber and Lyft previously required their investors not to support competing firms during fundraising efforts leading up to their initial public offerings back in early 2015.
A Shift Towards Hardware Investments?
Interestingly enough,some current backers involved with OpenAi have already invested resources into other artificial intelligence startups.SoftBank stands out among them as it continues focusing heavily on hardware advancements following several unsuccessful pre-pandemic investments like WeWork .
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