Sam Altman has explored deal to build competitor to Elon Musk’s SpaceX

OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman has explored putting together funds to either acquire or partner with a rocket company, a move that would position him to compete against Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

- Berber Jin

Altman reached out to at least one rocket maker, Stoke Space, in the summer, and the discussions picked up in the fall, according to people familiar with the talks. Among the proposals was for OpenAI to make a series of equity investments in the company and end up with a controlling stake. Such an investment would total billions of dollars over time.

The talks are no longer active, people close to OpenAI said.

Altman and OpenAI are facing market headwinds after striking hundreds of billions of dollars in computing deals without publicly offering a clear picture of how the startup will pay for the build-out.

OpenAI recently said on a podcast with Theo Von. “Like, maybe we build a big Dyson sphere around the solar system and say, “Hey, it actually makes no sense to put these on Earth.”