Known as one of the most brittle rivalries in tech history, the feud between Elon Musk and Sam Altman has taken a surprising turn. OpenAI and Musk have agreed to fast-track a trial over OpenAI’s for-profit shift. Musk had previously bid to buy the AI startup, aiming to derail its journey of becoming one of the world’s most important companies. He alleged that OpenAI’s transition to becoming a for-profit company betrays its original mission of benefiting humanity, arguing that such a structure could lead to prioritizing profits over ethical AI development and open-source principles.
READ ALSO: Top 10 AI News Updates to Catch Up on This Weekend and 12 AI Stocks Making Headlines: Latest News and Ratings
In the most recent federal court filing, Elon Musk and OpenAI have jointly proposed a trial in December. Both parties also agreed to delay the decision on whether the expedited case will be decided by a jury or solely by the judge. Previously, Musk had requested the court to pause the artificial intelligence group’s transition to a for-profit model. US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers dismissed Musk’s request, calling it “extraordinary and rarely granted.” However, the judge added that the court was prepared to expedite a trial over “interrelated contract-based claims” due to the “public interest at stake.”
“We welcome the court’s March 4 decision rejecting, opens new tab Elon Musk’s latest attempt to slow down OpenAI for his personal benefit.”
-OpenAI said in a blog post.
“We fully intend to (1) keep the non-profit as a crucial part of our work to achieve our mission, and (2) make sure it’s not just supported by a successful business, but in a stronger position than ever.”
-OpenAI.
Musk and Altman have been involved in a feud ever since Musk left OpenAI. Musk left the company due to conflicts of interest between OpenAI’s research and Tesla’s work on artificial intelligence. Ever since, Musk has been criticizing OpenAI’s direction, such as its partnership with Microsoft and its path toward becoming a for-profit entity.
“Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity. I feel for the guy. I don’t think he’s a happy person. I do feel for him.”
-Altman said in an interview on the sidelines of the Paris AI Action Summit.
For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q4 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A portfolio manager at their work station, examining stock graphs of large-cap stocks.
10. Fabrinet (NYSE:FN)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 42
Fabrinet (NYSE:FN) offers optical packaging, along with precision optical, electro-mechanical, and electronic manufacturing services. On March 14, Northland raised the firm’s price target on the stock to $350 from $300 and kept an “Outperform” rating on the shares. The price target revision comes after Fabrinet announced warrant agreements with Amazon (AMZN).
The analyst told investors in a research note that the $400M in annual module purchases Amazon announced as part of a separate warrant agreement with Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) “could well represent the bulk of their demand.” This could open up the possibility of the Fabrinet deal being focused on other elements of AI Infrastructure. This is particularly true given Fabrinet’s capabilities at the systems level.
9. Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 54
Baidu, Inc. (NASDAQ:BIDU) is a Chinese internet giant and AI pioneer, known for its noteworthy investments in artificial intelligence technology and its position as the dominant search engine within the country. On March 16, the company announced the launch of two new artificial intelligence models, including a reasoning-focused model. According to Baidu, the reasoning-focused model rivals that of DeepSeek.
“ERNIE X1 delivers performance on par with DeepSeek R1 at only half the price,” Baidu said of one of the new models. The X1 has “stronger understanding, planning, reflection, and evolution capabilities.”
The company reported that ERNIE X1 is the first deep-thinking model that uses tools autonomously. Meanwhile, the latest foundation model ERNIE 4.5 has “excellent multimodal understanding ability. It has more advanced language ability, and its understanding, generation, logic, and memory abilities are comprehensively improved.”
Hedge Fund Resource Center