A consortium of investors led by Elon Musk recently offered $97.4 billion to buy the non-profit that controls OpenAI. Musk’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, confirmed the news. He told Reuters that the offer was sent by email on Monday to OpenAI’s outside counsel at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. However, OpenAI has said that it has not yet received a formal bid from the Elon Musk-led consortium.
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According to Toberoff, the bid was in the form of a “detailed four-page Letter of Intent” to purchase OpenAI’s assets. It was signed by Musk and other investors and addressed to the board. Nevertheless, the news of not having received the bid adds confusion over Musk’s attempt to take control of the artificial startup that has seemingly started the AI arms race.
“Whether Sam Altman chose to provide or withhold this from OpenAI’s other Board members is outside of our control”
-Toberoff, referring to OpenAI’s CEO.
Whether or not an official bid has been sent to OpenAI from Musk, one thing remains clear. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, is not interested in the offer. Altman told Reuters that the non-profit that controls OpenAI is not for sale. He also posted on X, counter-questioning if Musk wanted to sell Twitter for $9.74 billion instead.
“I have nothing to say. I mean, it’s ridiculous. The company is not for sale. It’s another one of his tactics to try to mess with us”.
-Altman said (on the sidelines) of an AI summit in Paris when asked about the offer.
Reuters also reported that Altman sent an internal message to OpenAI employees stating that the board, even though it had not officially reviewed the offer, would reject it based on the interest of OpenAI.
OpenAI is currently seeking a transition into a for-profit from a nonprofit entity. The company states that the transition is required to secure the capital needed for developing the best AI models. Musk, however, appears to have made the move to prevent this outcome. According to him, OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit entity would steer it away from its original mission of developing open-source, safety-focused AI that benefits humanity.
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10. Lattice Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:LSCC)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 32
Lattice Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ:LSCC) makes and sells semiconductor products. On February 11, Baird increased its price target for the stock to $68 and retained an “Outperform” rating. Analysts are bullish on Lattice Semiconductor based on its potential signs of recovery. In particular, the company’s book-to-bill ratio exceeded 1 over recent weeks, signifying a path towards inventory normalization at distributors by mid-2025. Its computing segment has also demonstrated growth over the past year, and there are anticipations for continued increases over the next quarters in the communications and computing sectors.
Management has also pointed to secular trends in favoring FPGA adoption, which is the use of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chips in more applications. These factors include swift time-to-market advantage in shorter design cycles, rising costs of ASICs and ASSPs, and the increasing expenses associated with advanced nodes. Moreover, evolving market requirements and the expansion of edge AI technologies are also boosting FPGA demand. Even though the fourth quarter was challenging, its forward-looking revenue and earnings projections for 2025 remain positive.
9. Astera Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALAB)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 39
Astera Labs, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALAB) is engaged in the design, manufacture, and selling of semiconductor-based connectivity solutions for cloud and AI infrastructure. On February 11, Needham analyst Quinn Bolton maintained a “Buy” rating on the stock with a price target of $140.00. Bolton’s optimism for Astera Labs stems from the company’s strong performance and growth potential. The company’s financial results for the fourth quarter of 2024, reported on February 10th, exceeded expectations. Revenue grew 25% versus the previous quarter and the company also concluded 2024 with 242% revenue growth year-over-year. The firm noted the success of its Taurus SCMs, Aries SCMs, and Aries PCIe retimers behind the results, which in turn reflect upon the company’s effective product diversification.
Moreover, management anticipates a promising future for Astera, with its Scorpio family projected to become the primary revenue source by 2025. The Scorpio family, Astera’s purpose-built portfolio for deploying cloud-scale AI platforms, is likely to contribute over 10% of revenue. The company also plans on addressing potential concerns like those related to DeepSeek. It is doing so by highlighting favorable forecasts for high-speed data center AI capital expenditures. Additionally, anticipated contributions from custom ASIC and merchant GPU solutions in 2025 also boost the company’s growth prospects.
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