Elon Musk owning OpenAI would be a terrible idea. That doesn’t mean it won’t happen

As the AI market booms, the battle to claim ground in an already lucrative industry may draw US president Donald Trump to back his new right-hand man

Elon Musk and Donald Trump in the Oval Office at the White House: Putting a trusted deputy in charge of arguably the most important AI company in the world would make sense for Mr Trump. Picture: Alex Brandon

Elon Musk and Sam Altman are not exactly the best of friends. 

The two had a blowout argument over the future direction of OpenAI — the company they came together to found in 2015 — with Mr Altman seemingly content to pursue a for-profit approach and Mr Musk feeling that was forswearing the founding principles of the firm as well as its name.