By
Mayowa Adebajo
April 29th, 2024
OpenAI’s offer also included making Anthropic’s CEO and co-founder Dario Amodei a replacement for Altman.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) company Anthropic may have just refused to enter into a merger deal with OpenAI. According to a report by The Information and another report by Reuters, OpenAI’s board of directors put forward the offer following last week’s decision to sack its immediate past CEO Sam Altman.
Anthropic CEO Rejects OpenAI’s Offers
Citing sources with inside knowledge, The Information claims that OpenAI’s offer also included making Anthropic’s CEO and co-founder Dario Amodei a replacement for Altman. However, Amodei also rejected the offer.
Other details about the merger offer were not disclosed so it is not exactly clear whether or not it led to any serious discussions. However, the proposal may just have opened up the way for other potentially similar deals.
Last year, a circulated memorandum revealed that FTX bought a $500 million stake in Anthropic. However, that was before it filed for bankruptcy in November.
As of publication FTX’s bankruptcy trustee is yet to sell the stake. But recent fundraising efforts from Anthropic mean that there may finally be hope for FTX creditors waiting to get more robust payouts. That is if the stake later gets sold.
Recall that the United States Justice Department did allege that FTX made the $500 million investment in Anthropic using customer funds.
OpenAI Under Pressure
Meanwhile, it appears that OpenAI ‘s decision to axe Altman has not been met well by stakeholders. At the time of the decision, the company’s board of directors explained that they no longer had confidence in Altman’s leadership capabilities. Hence, the reason why it was necessary to fire him.
In light of the decision, however, many employees have also threatened to resign from their jobs. Additionally, major backers of OpenAI have also tried to influence a new decision to reinstate Altman. For example, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said:
“I’ve not been directly told by anyone from their board about any issues. And so therefore, I remain confident in Sam [Altman] and his leadership capability.”
By press time, neither OpenAI nor Anthropic had responded to Coinspeaker’s requests for comment on the report.