Plus, Intel’s AI chief steps down. And European startups Helsing and Mistral join forces to develop AI systems for military use. Julie Chang hosts.
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[00:00:31] Here's your TNB Tech Minute for Monday, February 10th. I'm Julie Chang for The Wall Street Journal. A consortium of investors led by Elon Musk is offering over $97 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI. An attorney for Musk said he submitted a bid for all the nonprofit's assets to OpenAI's board of directors today. The unsolicited offer complicates CEO Sam Altman's plans to convert OpenAI to a for-profit company
[00:00:59] along with plans to spend up to $500 billion on AI infrastructure through the Stargate joint venture. Altman and Musk are already fighting in court over the direction of OpenAI. Altman responded to Musk's bid on X, writing, quote, no thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want. Intel's head of data center and artificial intelligence operations is leaving the chipmaker.
[00:01:24] Justin Hotard, who joined Intel in February last year, will join European telecommunications gear maker Nokia as its newest CEO in April. Hotard's exit is the latest high-profile executive shuffle at Intel, as the company struggles to revamp its business. Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger retired abruptly in December. Intel has lagged behind rivals like NVIDIA in the AI race. Its stock is down more than 55% over the past 12 months.
[00:01:53] And two of Europe's biggest startups, Helsing and Mistral AI, have teamed up to develop AI systems for military use. Helsing is a German-British company that focuses on the integration of AI in defense platforms, and Mistral is a French developer of large language models. The company said they will combine their technologies to improve collaboration between soldiers and AI on the battlefield. Helsing reached a valuation of $5.4 billion last summer and has raised about $827 million
[00:02:22] since its launch in 2021. Mistral's valuation rose to around $6 billion last June and has secured over $1 billion since it was founded in 2023. For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Tuesday's Tech News Briefing podcast.