"I feel for the guy": Altman swipes at Musk's "insecurity" as AI feud gets nasty

Driving the news: Musk bid $97.4 billion to buy OpenAI's for-profit assets, while Altman is trying to restructure the company by separating its nonprofit board control from its for-profit business, Axios reported Monday.

• Altman mocked the offer by posting on X: "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want", later refering to him as "Phony Stark", a play on the billionaire Marvel character. Altman also told Axios' Ina Fried that OpenAI was not for sale.
• Musk clapped back by calling him "Scam Altman" and a "swindler."
• Musk later separately posted "Scam Altman" with a 2023 video of Altman saying that he has "no equity in OpenAI" and that he's doing the work because he "loves it."

Zoom in: Altman said in an interview with Bloomberg that Musk is operating not as a potential buyer of OpenAI, but as a competitor who wants to slow OpenAI down. Musk is CEO of xAI.

• He also said he is focused on "how we're going to make our technology better" and not how Musk could wield his influence in the Trump administration when it comes to AI policy.

• During the interview, Altman also said that he doesn't believe Musk is a "happy person" and Musk's "whole life is from a position of insecurity — I feel for the guy."
• The bid, he said, is the latest in a string of "tactics, many, many lawsuits, all sorts of other crazy stuff, now this" from Musk.

Go deeper: Exclusive — OpenAI is not for sale, CEO Sam Altman says