Elon Musk once backed a $10 billion OpenAI ICO, internal notes show

2026-01-17 09:22:01

Source: CryptoNewsNet Original Title: Elon Musk once backed a $10 billion OpenAI ICO, internal notes show Original Link: Internal notes from early discussions between Elon Musk and the founders of OpenAI show that Musk briefly supported the idea of an initial coin offering (ICO) as a way to fund the organization, before abandoning the plan and ultimately leaving the project.

According to call transcripts published as part of OpenAI’s response to Musk’s lawsuit, talks in January 2018 included Musk agreeing that OpenAI should pursue an ICO to raise roughly $10 billion.

The released notes show Musk and other founders discussing the mechanics of creating a for-profit arm — including the ICO — to support the nonprofit’s mission.

By the end of the month, however, OpenAI founders said Musk no longer backed the approach. OpenAI said Musk had concluded the organization would not be able to raise sufficient funding and decided to focus on artificial intelligence work at Tesla instead.

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