Good morning. If you’re still thinking about the implications of the Chinese business summit we wrote about in yesterday’s edition—the one hosted by President Xi Jinping and attended by virtually every major Chinese tech founder and CEO—you’re not the only one.
My Fortune colleague Nick Gordon, who is based in Hong Kong, wrote a fantastic piece explaining some of the political undercurrents at work during the session and what it means for each tech leader’s organization. Give it a read.
Today’s news below. —Andrew Nusca
Want to send thoughts or suggestions to Data Sheet? Drop a line here.
OpenAI mulls board changes to fend off hostile bids
OpenAI is considering taking a leaf out of Mark Zuckerberg’s book as it scrambles to fend off Elon Musk’s $97 billion takeover offer.
Musk’s offer is mainly intended as pressure to force OpenAI (which Musk cofounded) to abandon its plan to convert from a nonprofit to a for-profit company. He claims this would betray OpenAI’s original mission of developing artificial general intelligence for the benefit of all humanity.
According to the Financial Times, the company may now grant special voting rights to its nonprofit board, which would then be able to retain control of OpenAI rather than letting investors like Microsoft dictate its future. The move would theoretically allow OpenAI to rake in loads more investment, which it needs to build crucial compute capacity, and also to tell hostile bidders to go away (though OpenAI is so far managing to do that just fine with Musk.)
Zuckerberg is a prime example of the power of special voting rights. He owns less than 15% of Meta, but his word is law there and he cannot be ousted.
Musk lawyer Marc Toberoff is not impressed. He told the FT that the restructuring represents the board selling OpenAI’s assets “to themselves at a fraction of what Musk has offered, enriching board members in a classic self-dealing transaction.”
OpenAI’s board is reportedly also considering a “poison pill” plan that would briefly let shareholders buy discounted shares to ward off hostile takeovers. However, OpenAI chair Bret Taylor tried that before when he was Twitter chair and Musk was attempting a takeover—Musk went on to buy Twitter and recast it as X. —David Meyer
Silver Lake reportedly in talks to acquire Intel Altera stake
The tech-focused private equity firm Silver Lake reportedly has a new target: Intel’s Altera.
As Broadcom and TSMC circle other parts of Intel, Silver Lake—which helped Michael Dell buy his eponymous company in 2013 and took entertainment agency Endeavor private in 2024—is discussing the acquisition of a majority stake in Altera, according to a Bloomberg report.
A deal would hardly come as a surprise. Intel had already positioned its programmable chips business for a spinout under former CEO Pat Gelsinger with the expectation of a partial sale. Last year Intel installed company veteran Sandra Rivera as Altera’s CEO, reorganized the business, and put it on a path to an IPO in a bid to generate cash for the parent company.
Altera’s FPGA, or Field Programmable Gate Array, chips are frequently used in telecommunications networks. Intel acquired Altera in 2015 for $16.7 billion, though it was said to be valued at considerably less at the end of last year when reports surfaced that FPGA rival Lattice Semiconductor was interested in the business.
Whatever happens, there’s a real sense in Silicon Valley that Intel, an industry icon and a stalwart of the Fortune 500, is on the verge of disintegration. Intel’s board ousted Gelsinger in December over a turnaround plan that didn’t materialize fast enough; the company is now led by interim co-CEOs Michelle Johnston Holthaus, who runs the company’s computing groups, and Dave Zinsner, the company’s CFO.
Shares of Intel jumped some 17%—its biggest intraday gain in years—on Tuesday as the prospect of a breakup rippled through the market. —AN
Mira Murati’s startup finally has a name: Thinking Machines Lab
Former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati formally shared details of her new AI startup on Tuesday, announcing a leadership team stacked with former colleagues and a plan to tackle “key gaps” around the most advanced, “frontier” AI systems.
The details about Thinking Machines Lab come roughly six months after Murati left OpenAI and shed light on one of the AI industry’s most highly anticipated projects.
The AI research and product startup described its mission as making “AI systems more widely understood, customizable, and generally capable.”
“Knowledge of how these systems are trained is concentrated within the top research labs, limiting both the public discourse on AI and people’s abilities to use AI effectively,” a company blog post said.
OpenAI cofounder John Schulman will serve as the startup’s chief scientist, joining Murati after departing Anthropic just five months after signing on, as Fortune was first to report last week. Barret Zoph, who was OpenAI’s vice president of research, will be the chief technology officer of Thinking Machines Lab.
At least seven of the 29 Thinking Machines Lab employees announced on Tuesday were formerly with OpenAI. Jonathan Lachman was former head of special projects; Lilian Weng was former vice president; Luke Metz, Sam Shleifer, and Stephen Roller were former research scientists. The remaining employees include researchers from Meta, Google DeepMind, CharacterAI, and Mistral.
Murati left OpenAI in September 2024, saying she wanted to “create the time and space to do my own exploration.” In October 2024, she was in talks to raise over $100 million in funding for the stealth startup, according to media reports. Last month, the startup made several high-profile hires, including Lachman, former head of special projects at OpenAI. —Sharon Goldman
More data
—Acer likely to boost prices by 10% because of U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports.
—Baidu Q4 revenue slips 2%. Ad spending is down, but AI spending is up.
—Bumble shares drop 18% after a 4.4% drop in quarterly revenue and a weak forecast.
—FTX creditor payouts have begun, starting with claims under $50,000.
—Google AI turf wars: Labs vs. Workspace, Cloud vs. DeepMind, progress vs. bureaucracy.
—HP will acquire Humane assets for $116 million. Ai Pin will wind down, founders and team will join HP.
—Huawei debuts Mate XT, a tri-fold smartphone with accordion vibes. (Paging…Lawrence Welk?)
—Niantic in talks to sell games unit for $3.5 billion to Saudi Arabia-controlled Scopely.
—OnePlus Watch 3 arrives. Five-day battery life, rotating crown, health sensors, $330.
—R.I.P. Amazon’s Inspire, a TikTok-style shopping feed. It will be replaced by—what else?—an AI chatbot.
Endstop triggered
