🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

The failed OpenAI takeover followed a detailed strategy

• A proposal to place Sam Altman on Tesla’s board was part of a broader plan to make him the “anchor for TeslaAI” 1.
• A Tesla frequently asked questions document drafted in 2017 called out a brand problem. It said that “when people think of Elon and AI, they think of OpenAI,” tying the effort to a push to center Musk’s AI image at Tesla 1.
• Internal emails from Shivon Zilis backed “burying” OpenAI inside Tesla to gain a “stealth advantage” over rivals such as Google DeepMind, Google’s AI research division 1.

Musk’s failed push to fold OpenAI into Tesla shaped today’s AI race

• The 2017 to 2018 fight sits at the center of the current trial, where OpenAI’s lawyers call Musk’s lawsuit “sour grapes” over his failed bid for control 1.
• After that effort fell short, Musk went on to start xAI, his AI company 1.
• The rivalry now reaches across the sector. Anthropic, an AI startup that competes with OpenAI, said a deal with SpaceX, Musk’s rocket company, gave it access “to use all of the compute capacity at their Colossus 1 data center” in Memphis 2.