Elon Musk appears to diss Sam Altman over OpenAI’s high-profile departures

• Elon Musk compared Sam Altman of OpenAI to a character from “Game of Thrones” in an X-post.
• Musk’s comment followed Mira Murati’s announcement that she is stepping down from her role as CTO of OpenAI.
• Murati announced her resignation on Wednesday after co-founder Ilya Sutskever left the company in May.

Elon Musk seems to be casting a shadow on Sam Altman.

The billionaire compared the head of OpenAI to a character from the successful television series “Game of Thrones”.

In an X-post on Wednesday evening, he wrote: “Sam Altman is Little Finger,” referring to Petyr Baelish, an antagonist in the series known for his manipulative, ruthless and cunning ways.

The post was written in response to another user who shared four photos showing Sam Altman with former CTO Mira Murati and co-founders Greg Brockman and Ilya Sutskever. Each photo features one of the four former executives, who have been removed from the images.

The post follows Murati’s announcement on Wednesday that she is leaving the company, following Sutskever’s departure in May and Brockman’s decision to take a break in August.

Musk also retweeted a post by another X user that included Altman’s comments from a podcast in May in which he said he didn’t need more money and, “If I said I’m going to try to make a trillion dollars with OpenAI, that would save a lot of conspiracy theories.”

The post continued: “What I personally don’t like is the underhanded way Sam does all this.”

Musk appears to be referring to reports from Reuters and Bloomberg that OpenAI is in the process of transforming its corporate structure into a for-profit company.

According to Bloomberg, OpenAI has discussed giving Altman a 7% stake in the company. A separate Bloomberg report said the company is in talks with investors to raise funds at a $150 billion valuation, which would bring Altman’s stake up to $10.5 billion.

The ChatGPT maker now describes itself as a “limited margin company.” In 2019, it founded OpenAI LP, a hybrid for-profit/nonprofit company. In a blog post at the time, OpenAI said the idea was that investors and employees should receive a “limited return” if the company successfully fulfills its mission.

The Tesla CEO also wrote “bull’s eye” in response to a clip posted on X by podcaster Joe Rogan in which he appears to mock Altman for saying he doesn’t need money.

musk sued OpenAI, Altman and Brockman in March and accused the company of jeopardizing its nonprofit mission by partnering with Microsoft. OpenAI responded with and described the lawsuit as “incoherent” and “contradictory.”