A group of investors led by Elon Musk is offering about $97.4 billion to buy OpenAI, escalating a legal dispute with the artificial intelligence company that Musk helped found.
Musk and his own AI startup, xAI, and a consortium of investment firms want to take control of the ChatGPT maker and revert it to its original charitable mission as a nonprofit research lab, according to Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly rejected the deal on Musk’s social platform X, saying, “no thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Musk bought Twitter, now called X, for $44 billion in 2022.
Musk and Altman, who together helped start OpenAI in 2015 and later competed over who should lead it, have been in a long-running feud over the startup’s direction since Musk resigned from its board in 2018.
Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the company last year, first in a California state court and later in federal court, alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good. Musk had invested about $45 million in the startup from its founding until 2018, Toberoff has said.
Musk and OpenAI lawyers faced off in a California federal court last week as a judge weighed Musk’s request for a court order that would block the ChatGPT maker from converting itself to a for-profit company.
US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers hasn’t yet ruled on Musk’s request but in the courtroom said it was a “stretch” for Musk to claim he will be irreparably harmed if she doesn’t intervene to stop OpenAI from moving forward with its planned for-profit transition.
But the judge also raised concerns about OpenAI and its relationship with business partner Microsoft and said she wouldn’t stop the case from moving to trial as soon as next year so a jury can decide.
“It is plausible that what Mr. Musk is saying is true. We’ll find out. He’ll sit on the stand,” she said.
Along with Musk and xAI, others backing the bid announced Monday include Baron Capital Group, Valor Management, Atreides Management, Vy Fund, Emanuel Capital Management and Eight Partners VC.
Toberoff said in a statement that if Altman and OpenAI’s current board “are intent on becoming a fully for-profit corporation, it is vital that the charity be fairly compensated for what its leadership is taking away from it: control over the most transformative technology of our time.”
Musk’s attorney also shared a letter he sent in early January to the attorneys general of California and Delaware.
“As both your offices must ensure any such transactional process relating to OpenAI’s charitable assets provides at least fair market value to protect the public’s beneficial interest, we assume you will provide a process for competitive bidding to actually determine that fair market value,” Toberoff wrote, asking for more information on the terms and timing of that bidding process.
Elon Musk-led group proposes buying OpenAI for $97.4bn. OpenAI CEO says ‘no thank you’
https://arab.news/2qvhd
Elon Musk-led group proposes buying OpenAI for $97.4bn. OpenAI CEO says ‘no thank you’
- Musk had invested about $45 million in the startup from its founding until 2018
Erdogan proposes new Putin-Zelensky-Trump meeting in Turkiye
- Ukraine and Russia agreed on Monday to exchange severely injured prisoners of war as well as those under 25
ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday reiterated his willingness to host a meeting between the American, Russian and Ukrainian leaders in an effort to end the war in Ukraine.
“My greatest wish for both sides is to bring both (Russia’s) Vladimir Putin and (Ukraine’s Volodymyr) Zelensky together in Istanbul or Ankara, and even to bring (US President) Mr. (Donald) Trump to their side, if they accept,” he said.
Turkiye, he said, would “take steps” to facilitate such a meeting, following direct talks between the two sides in Istanbul on Monday.
Erdogan said it was a big achievement that Monday’s talks even took place.
Ukraine carried out one of its most brazen and successful attacks ever on Russian soil on the weekend, its drones ambushing dozens of strategic bombers at bases deep inside Russia.
“It is a success in itself that the meeting happened despite what happened yesterday,” he said, hailing the talks as “magnificent.”
At Monday’s meeting, which lasted just over an hour, Ukraine and Russia agreed to exchange severely injured prisoners of war as well as those under 25, alongside the remains of 6,000 troops killed in combat, Kyiv said.
“These figures given by both Russia and Ukraine... (are) very, very important in terms of showing how important these Istanbul meetings are. And we are proud of this,” Erdogan added.
‘Without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes’ in Gaza: Biden official
- Matthew Miller: Biden administration debated whether to cut off arms supply
- Denies genocide taking place, but Israeli military not being held ‘accountable’
LONDON: A senior official in the administration of former US President Joe Biden told Sky News on Monday that he believes Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza.
Former State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said he does not believe genocide is taking place, but it is “without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes,” and Israeli forces are not being held “accountable” for their actions.
“There are two ways to think about the commission of war crimes,” he told the “Trump 100” podcast. “One is, if the state has pursued a policy of deliberately committing war crimes or is acting recklessly in a way that aids and abets war crimes. Is the state committing war crimes?
“That, I think, is an open question. I think what’s almost certainly not an open question is that there have been individual incidents that have been war crimes — where Israeli soldiers, members of the Israeli military, have committed war crimes.”
Miller said there had been internal clashes between senior White House staff about the US stance on the war almost from the beginning of the conflict.
“There were disagreements all along the way about how to handle policy. Some of those were big disagreements, some of those were little disagreements,” he added.
“The administration did debate, at times, whether and when to cut off weapons to Israel. You saw us in the spring of 2024 stop the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel because we didn’t believe they’d use those in a way that was appropriate in Gaza.”
He hinted that in particular, there had been tension between Biden and Antony Blinken, his secretary of state, but said: “I’ll probably wait and let the secretary speak for himself … but I will say, speaking generally … it’s true about every senior official in government that they don’t win every policy fight that they enter into. And what you do is you make your best case to the president.”
Miller added that Biden’s staunch military support of Israel was also a source of contention, but that public dissent against it may have also encouraged Hamas.
“There were debates about whether to suspend other arms deliveries, and you saw at times us hold back certain arms while we negotiated the use of those arms … But we found ourselves in this really tough position, especially in that time period when it really came to a head … We were at a place where — I’m thinking of the way I can appropriately say this — the decisions and the thinking of (the) Hamas leadership weren’t always secret to the US and to our partners.”
He added: “It was clear to us in that period that there was a time when our public discussion of withholding weapons from Israel, as well as the protests on college campuses in the US, and the movement of some European countries to recognize the state of Palestine — appropriate discussions, appropriate decisions, protests are appropriate — but all of those things together were leading the leadership of Hamas to conclude that they didn’t need to agree to a ceasefire, they just needed to hold out for a little bit longer and they could get what they always wanted.
“Now, the thing that I look back on, that I’ll always ask questions of myself about, and I think this is true for others in government, is in that intervening period between the end of May and the middle of January (2025), when thousands of Palestinians were killed, innocent civilians who didn’t want this war, had nothing to do with it, was there more that we could’ve done to pressure the Israeli government to agree to that ceasefire? I think at times there probably was.”
Biden’s popularity waned as the 2024 presidential election approached, with the war in Gaza weighing heavily on his polling.
Miller called US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, “an extremely capable individual,” adding: “I know the people in the Biden administration who worked with him during the first negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire thought that he was capable.”
Miller continued: “I do think it’s extremely important that when people sit down with an envoy of the United States, they know that that envoy speaks for the president of the United States, and it’s very clear that Witkoff has that, and that’s an extremely valuable asset to bring to the table.”
Poland’s new president poses challenge for EU, Ukraine ties
- Karol Nawrocki opposes Ukraine’s NATO accession, criticized by Kyiv ambassador
- His euroskeptic stance echoes central European conservatives
WARSAW: The victory of nationalist Karol Nawrocki in Poland’s presidential election looks set to strain relations with Ukraine and embolden Donald Trump-inspired conservatives in central Europe, analysts and diplomats said on Monday.
Nawrocki won a knife-edge vote that pitted him against Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who was supported by the ruling centrists Civic Coalition (KO), dealing a major blow to the pro-European government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
While remaining committed to helping Ukraine’s effort to fend off Russian’s invasion, Nawrocki opposes Kyiv joining Western alliances such as NATO.
Nawrocki rejects suggestions that his stance is pro-Russian. But his campaign, backed by the nationalist opposition party Law and Justice (PiS), tapped into a mix of weariness with Ukrainian refugees and worries Poland could be drawn into the war over the border that many Polish voters feel.
All parties in Poland have ruled out sending troops to Ukraine.
Although real executive power lies with the government, the Polish president has veto powers, meaning he can stymie the government’s agenda. The head of state can also propose laws.
Nawrocki signed a declaration saying he would not ratify Ukraine’s accession to NATO, as it could result in the alliance being drawn into a conflict with Russia, a move that was sharply criticized by Kyiv’s ambassador to Warsaw and which marked a departure from previous Polish policy under both PiS and KO.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated Nawrocki on Monday and said he looked forward to future “fruitful cooperation” with Poland.
But elsewhere in Ukraine, the mood was less positive.
“The choice of the Poles will most likely complicate the dialogue within the EU and our European integration,” Ukrainian lawmaker Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze was quoted as saying by Interfax-Ukraine.
A European diplomat based in Warsaw said that while policy on Ukraine’s future in the EU and NATO would continue to be set by Tusk’s government, Nawrocki could create “a shift in tone that’s not going to be helpful.”
In his role as head of Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance, Nawrocki has been a harsh critic of what he said was Ukraine’s reluctance to exhume the remains of Polish victims killed by Ukrainian nationalists during World War Two.
Euroskeptic politicians
Nawrocki’s campaign echoed the language of other euroskeptic politicians in central Europe, lambasting a perceived over-reach of Brussels into areas that they consider should be the domain of individual countries.
“Yes, we want a common market, we want development, we want to be a strong voice in the European Union, but we do not want our freedom in the entire scope of social life to be decided by the Brussels elites,” Nawrocki told a campaign rally in March.
The election of Tusk, a former European Council president, as prime minister in 2023 catapulted Poland back to the heart of European decision-making.
He succeeded in unblocking billions in EU funds that had been held back over rule-of-law concerns, even as critics said Warsaw had not actually implemented the necessary court reforms as a result of PiS-ally President Andrzej Duda’s veto.
“Of course it (the election result) will mean a lot to the prime minister of Poland, who now instead of being a very strong force in the EU will be more marginalized,” said a second European diplomat.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, himself facing a tough election battle in 2026, hailed Nawrocki’s “fantastic victory” on Monday.
“This is definitely emboldening for... all pro-Trumpist or pro-MAGA euroskeptics,” said Botond Feledy, a geopolitical analyst at Red Snow Consulting, adding that in Hungary it could add strength to Orban’s argument that protecting national identity is more important than EU money.
With the ‘co-habitation’ of a government and president from different political camps looking likely to continue at least until parliamentary elections in 2027, a third diplomat said that they hoped “they will not be spending more energy on fighting each other than they will... (on) Poland’s leadership in Europe.”
Stanley Bill, Professor of Polish Studies at the University of Cambridge said that Tusk’s pro-European government would set foreign policy, but that if Nawrocki uses “an even more aggressive rhetoric against the European Union than Duda has... that’s clearly going to create a greater impression of chaos.”
Massive plume of ash, gas spews from Italy’s Mount Etna
ROME: A huge plume of ash, gas and rock spewed forth Monday from Italy’s Mount Etna, Europe’s largest active volcano, after a portion of its southeastern crater likely collapsed, authorities said.
Images showed a massive grey cloud billow forth from the volcano on the island of Sicily, beginning about 11:24 am local time (0924 GMT), according to the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV).
Surveillance cameras showed “a pyroclastic flow probably produced by a collapse of material from the northern flank of the Southeast Crater,” the agency said.
A pyroclastic flow occurs when volcanic rock, ash and hot gasses surge from volcanos. They are extremely dangerous.
The explosive activity “had transitioned to a lava fountain,” INGV said, with the plume of ash expected to dissipate toward the southwest.
A red alert issued for aviation authorities said the height of the volcanic cloud was estimated at 6.5 kilometers (more than four miles).
The nearby Catania airport was still in operation.
Mali army camp in Timbuktu under attack: residents and officials
BAMAKO: An army camp in the Malian city of Timbuktu on Monday was under attack by “terrorists” and heavy gunfire was heard, military and local officials and residents told AFP.
Junta-ruled Mali has been gripped since 2012 by violence from jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group as well as community and criminal groups.
“We are dealing with terrorists attacking Timbuktu. We are fighting back,” a military source said.
“The camp in the city center has been attacked,” the source added.
A local official said: “The terrorists arrived today in Timbuktu with a vehicle packed with explosives. The vehicle exploded near the (military) camp. Shooting is currently continuing.”
UN staff were instructed in a message “to take shelter” and “stay away from windows” due to “shooting in the city of Timbuktu.”
A resident reported having heard “heavy gunfire in the city” which “seems to come from the side of the (military) camp.”
A local journalist speaking by telephone said “the city is under fire.”
“This morning our city was attacked by terrorist groups. Shots were heard near the military camp and the airport. We all returned home,” he said.
The ancient city of Timbuktu, once known as the “city of 333 saints” for the Muslim holy men buried there, was subject to major destruction while under the control of jihadists in 2012 and 2013.
