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Musk Attempts to Buy OpenAI

Musk Attempts to Buy OpenAI

Christopher Webster
February 11, 2025

Startups:

Google leads QuEra’s $230M financing:

QuEra is a Boston-based quantum computing startup that is on the heels of some notable advancements in quantum chips. The company just closed a financing round of $230 million with investors like Google and SoftBank. The financing is not equity it is a convertible note. That means the it will be converted into equity when the company next raise an equity round. The company before now has only raised around $50 million. The company plans to use the latest cash to build their next stage of growth, building a fully-quantum computer. They hope to accomplish this in the next three to five years. What company is going to be the first to produce a useful fully-quantum computer?

$300M Archer:

We have already seen how hot the defense tech industry is with the likes of Anduril’s new raise of a couple billion. Archer Aviation is the latest defense tech to secure some fresh capital. Archer is a California-based startup building eVTOLs (electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles). When the company first started they focused on bringing air taxis to several cities in the U.S., but since have pivoted to defense. The company went public via SPAC in 2021 when SPACs were the hip and cool thing to do. However, they recently just announced a $300 million equity raise from institutional investors like Blackrock and Wellington. That brings Archer’s total funding to $3.36 billion. They have also signed an exclusive deal with Anduril to develop hybrid gas-and-electric-powered VTOLs for defense purposes. With all this new technology coming to the defense industry what should we expect from the U.S. military?

Big Tech:

Another Musk takeover?:

A team of investors led by Elon Musk submitted a $97.6 billion bid to purchase OpenAI on Monday. The news comes by way of Musk’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff. This is the latest jab by Musk in his beef with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. It is actually pretty funny since he is also in a legal battle with OpenAI over their attempt to turn into a for-profit company. Musk’s reason for bidding on OpenAI is to bring OpenAI back to an open source model, which was their initial aim. If the bid is successful it is expected that OpenAI will merge with Musk’s xAI. However, it is very unlikely that Musk will be able to buy OpenAI from Sam. This can be seen from Sam Altman’s witty tweet on X saying, “no thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want”. Who will get the last laugh in this feud between cofounders turned enemies?