Cage match on hold: For once, Musk and Zuckerberg are on the same side of a fight

Thanks to AI, Zuck and Musk are unlikely allies

12/16/24 11:13AM

In June 2023, Elon Musk tweeted that he was “up for a cage match” with Mark Zuckerberg, and Zuck accepted the challenge, posting “send me location” in an Instagram story.

I’m up for a cage match if he is lol
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 21, 2023

A year and a half later, while the two billionaires still haven’t fought in the octagon, they have formed an unlikely alliance against a common competitor: OpenAI. Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported that Meta is urging California’s attorney general to block OpenAI’s conversion to a for-profit entity, following in Tesla CEO Musk’s footsteps. Musk, an OpenAI founder, previously sued OpenAI for bailing on its nonprofit mission, though OpenAI posted a lengthy statement last week saying Musk wanted OpenAI to be for-profit from the start.

The Journal reported that Meta said in a letter to AG Rob Bonta that allowing OpenAI to become a for-profit company would set a dangerous precedent by letting the “non-profit” investors benefit from tax write-offs until the company was ready to go public:

“If OpenAI’s new business model is valid, non-profit investors would get the same for-profit upside as those who invest the conventional way in for-profit companies while also benefiting from tax write-offs bestowed by the government.”

Of course beyond the skewed incentive structure that might be encouraged by allowing a nonprofit to convert to a for-profit, Meta has another reason for wanting this deal blocked: OpenAI is one of its biggest AI competitors. Meta has led the charge with open-sourcing AI through its Llama models. Meanwhile, Musk’s xAI has raised $12 billion to buy GPUs and compete with OpenAI as well.

OpenAI raised $6.6 billion in October, valuing the company at $157 billion, but this fundraise was contingent on the company converting to a for-profit entity. California blocking this move would be a huge blow to the ChatGPT creator and benefit Zuckerberg and Musk’s AI ambitions.

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Demis Hassabis, Google DeepMind’s CEO and founder, was also an early Anthropic investor

A chess prodigy, and an actual a knight of the realm in the UK, it's perhaps no surprise that Demis Hassabis has made some strategic moves about his exposure to AI upside. According to people familiar with the matter, the influential AI architect became an angel investor in Anthropic, currently behind many of the leading AI models, per Arena AI leaderboards.

The Nobel Prize winner’s position in the Claude creator was previously undisclosed and, according to the Financial Times, highlights Hassabis’ “growing influence across the AI industry.”

Google, which bought DeepMind, the company that Hassabis cofounded and heads to this day, for a reported ~$400 million in 2014, is also a key Anthropic investor. The tech giant reportedly plans to invest up to $40 billion in the AI company as part of the mutually beneficial relationship the pair have forged, with reports that Anthropic has committed to spend $200 billion in the other direction on Google’s cloud services over the next five years.

I'm playing all sides, so I always come out on top

In addition to his financial support for Anthropic, Hassabis has also invested in a range of AI startups launched by colleagues, such as Inflection AI, a company set up by his DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman (who is now CEO of Microsoft AI), as well as efforts from other collaborators, like David Silver’s Ineffable Intelligence.

Hassabis also emerged as recurring figure on the fringes of the recent Elon Musk v. Sam Altman trial, cropping up repeatedly in testimonies and court documents and appearing to live, as The Verge put it, “rent-free” in Musk’s head.

Founded in 2021, Anthropic has recently raised funding at a reported $900 billion valuation, sending it soaring ahead of competitor OpenAI.

Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis emerges as early Anthropic investor

The Nobel Prize winner’s position in the Claude creator was previously undisclosed and, according to the Financial Times, highlights Hassabis’ “growing influence across the AI industry.”

I'm playing all sides, so I always come out on top

Founded in 2021, Anthropic has recently raised funding at a reported $900 billion valuation, sending it soaring ahead of competitor OpenAI.

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Jury rules against Musk in lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman

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In a unanimous verdict reached after less than two hours of deliberation, the Oakland jury found that Musk had waited too long to bring his case forward, exceeding the statute of limitations.

Musk had alleged that OpenAI abandoned its founding mission as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for humanity and instead became a profit-driven company closely tied to Microsoft.

The verdict caps off a three-week blockbuster tech trial that could have seen Altman and Brockman removed from OpenAI leadership.

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Musk had alleged that OpenAI abandoned its founding mission as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for humanity and instead became a profit-driven company closely tied to Microsoft.

The verdict caps off a three-week blockbuster tech trial that could have seen Altman and Brockman removed from OpenAI leadership.

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