Musk Trapped OpenAI Donation Scam! With a mouthful of $100 million, only $15 million can be traced back

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Quantum bit | official account QbitAI

Musk, who claimed to have donated $100 million to OpenAI, may not actually have even given half of it?!

As is well known, Musk has previously claimed to have donated $100 million to OpenAI and is also making a lot of comments on Twitter:

I am still confused about how I donated about $100 million to a non-profit organization and became a for-profit company with a profit market value of $30 billion. If this is legal, why don't others do it

And he has emphasized more than once that he "donated $100 million": I don't have any ownership or control of OpenAI now!

This caught the attention of foreign media TechCrunch, so they searched for the true donation amount Musk gave to OpenAI and concluded that:

Musk couldn't have donated the original claim100 million US dollars

The tax documents they found from the US Internal Revenue Service and state regulatory agencies indicate that OpenAI's initial source of funding was onlyApproximately $15 millionThe donation can be clearly traced back to Musk.

Musk did not respond positively to this. However, in a recent interview with CNBC (Consumer News and Business Channel), he quietly changed his tune:

I'm not sure the exact number, it's probably$50 millionAbout the amount.

So how much did Musk actually donate? Where have the funding sources for OpenAI come from over the years?

How much 'visible' money did Musk spend?

At the beginning of OpenAI, Elon Musk and Sam Ultraman served as co chairs.

In order to ensure its normal operation under non-profit circumstances, Musk and Ultraman, along with numerous technology giants including Greg Brockman, Reid Hoffman, Jessica Livingston, Peter Thiel, and others, have pledged to donate $1 billion to OpenAI.

However, 'commitment' does not meanActual donationFor example, according to federal tax documents, YCResearch has never donated a penny

The total amount of donations received by OpenAI from its establishment to 2021 is only$133.2 million

2019OpenAI20213066

$133.2 million

According to TechCrunch's survey, in 2016, the Musk Foundation donated to another non-profit organization related to Ultraman, YC.org10 million US dollarsYC.orgOpenAIOpenAI2019OpenAI

10 million US dollarsOpenAI

However, an audited financial statement submitted by YC.org to the California charity regulatory agency in 2020 showed:

The organization generated $15 million in revenue in 2016 from asingle donors

Considering YC's total revenue of $16.6 million that year, Musk is highly likely to be thisDonors who donated a total of $15 millionYC2017OpenAI160010 million US dollarsAt least $5 million may be Musk's donation

In addition, another donation that can be traced back to Musk is the 2017 donation to OpenAI with a value of2482.95 million US dollarsTesla Motors, and the subsequent value in 2018$141.05 million

Of course, there are alsoAnonymous donation to non-profit organizations

2016YC.org500

DAFs

201712402018630DAF20182020OpenAI780

So the final conclusion of TechCrunch is,About $15 million

TechCrunch

OpenAI100 million US dollars

100 million US dollars

In that case, onlyCount donations from other donors to OpenAI

2016OpenAI CEO375378.4637

HoffmanAphorism2016YC1002017OpenAIAphorism20172018OpenAI500

8012.9

OpenAIBrockmanLivingston

Peter ThielOpenAI2018Donors Trust10Thiel

2017Open PhilanthropyOpenAI3000201720182019

Open PhilanthropyCEO Holden KarnofskyOpenAI

Adding the $30 million funding from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation mentioned below, TechCrunch calculated that adding up all non Musk donations to OpenAI would result in a total ofseven thousand five hundred and eighty$133.2 million

This is still assuming three founding donors (including Thiel), six newer donors, and multiple corporate supporters like InfosysWithout any donationsTechCrunch

This means that Musk is most likely to donate an amount to OpenAI57 million 400 thousand100 million US dollars

2018OpenAIOpenAI

OpenAIAndrei Karpathy AIOpenAI

OpenAI

In the second year, OpenAI made its last significant public donation:

Silicon Valley Community FoundationDAF3000No recordsDAF

1OpenAI

How much money does OpenAI burn today?

In 2019, OpenAI, which urgently needed funds, restructured and established a for-profit company called OpenAILP. It first accepted Microsoft's1 billion US dollars

Reid HoffmanAphorism2018OpenAI$50 millionAphorism

The new business aims to achieve appropriate open sourcelicence

1 billion US dollarsOpenAI$4 billion investment

ChatGPTGPT-440

For example, just creating requiresBillions of dollarsChatGPT

A100ChatGPT3

So currently, OpenAI with the ability to create GPT-4 and ChatGPT has burned at least an amount of moneyOver 4 billion US dollars

ChatGPTGPT-41OpenAI100

OpenAI40100

What is the specific amount? Ultraman stated:

1000

Reference link:
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/17/elon-musk-used-to-say-he-put-100m-in-openai-but-now-its-50m-here-are-the-receipts/
[2] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1639138603371491329
[3] https://www.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/137ynhl/sam_altman_has_privately_suggested_openai_may_try/
[4] https://old.reddit.com/r/singularity/comments/10mhzhk/what_people_are_missing_about_microsofts_10b/