- Musk has been testing the limits of his political power ever since helping install Donald Trump back in the White House. And while the world’s wealthiest person has been known to file frivolous lawsuits in defense of his business interests, there are lines that even he may not cross.
Despite being the country’s unofficial “copresident,” Elon Musk isn’t expected to wield the office of the White House in a bid to go after competitors.
That’s the hope of Musk’s rival, Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI.
While Altman expects “all sorts of bad s—“ from his company’s former cofounder, there’s a line he thinks Musk won’t cross even if he could.
“The question was, will he abuse his political power of being copresident, or whatever he calls himself now, to mess with a business competitor?” Altman told Bloomberg in an interview published on Sunday. “I don’t think he’ll do that. I genuinely don’t.”
Known for what critics call frivolous lawsuits that pursue his own interests, Musk is suing OpenAI for the second time in an attempt to coerce the nonprofit to publish its breakthrough research into artificial intelligence, in line with its original nine-year-old charter.
OpenAI is pushing to dismiss the case, claiming the tycoon needs the research so his new research lab, xAI, can narrow the competitive gap.
This dispute could prove tricky now that Musk has the ear of Donald Trump, following Musk’s instrumental role in backing Trump’s successful campaign to return to the White House.
Altman argued that just because there is bad blood between the two doesn’t mean Musk will go beyond legal means to pursue his aims. Musk did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
This might prove overly optimistic, with the CEO of OpenAI conceding his prediction “may turn out to be proven wrong.”
Musk has been testing the limits of his political power since Trump victory
Having helped install Trump back into the White House, Musk has been continuously testing out the boundaries of his newfound influence daily.
He nearly sparked a government shutdown by opposing a congressional spending bill negotiated by Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.
Musk also promised to use his vast wealth, estimated at well over $400 billion, to fund campaign challenges against sitting politicians who oppose his political ally.
Encountering little opposition at home, Musk is now probing how far his influence reaches internationally.
After campaigning on behalf of Germany’s AfD, whose unofficial links to the neo-Nazi scene are under surveillance by domestic spy agencies, he’s demanded King Charles dissolve the U.K. Parliament and call new elections.
But even though his actions share a common antiestablishment theme, Musk remains an unreliable ally for his new friends on the alt-right.
Recently, he promised in no uncertain terms to go to war with Trump‘s own MAGA base to protect H-1B visas and demonetized major accounts on X that spoke out against him in a seeming violation of his free speech standpoint.
Now he’s suddenly turned on Nigel Farage, the president-elect’s chief political ally in the U.K. over the years.
Artificial general intelligence could be solved during Trump years
Musk’s reputation for volatile mood swings, for which he takes ketamine as a medication, is well-earned.
Last year, he sacked his entire Supercharger team just to make an example of the Tesla manager in charge, only to then reverse his decision in part.
Altman also admitted he had underestimated his combustible personality.
“I don’t remember any big blowups with Elon until the fallout that led to the departure. But until then, for all of the stories—people talk about how he berates people and blows up and whatever, I hadn’t experienced that,” he said.
That may be why Altman contributed $1 million of his fortune to the inaugural fund of Donald Trump, a man known for his transactional approach to governing.
Altman said AI was at a crucial juncture that must “transcend any political issues,” couching the monetary donation as a means of getting a foot in the door of the Trump administration and steering policy in the proper direction.
“I think AGI will probably get developed during this president’s term,” he told Bloomberg, referring to the goal of artificial general intelligence, “and getting that right seems really important.”
That is so long as xAI founder Musk doesn’t first come between Altman and Trump.
