Trump’s new crypto czar called OpenAI a ‘piranha, for-profit company’

United States president-elect Donald Trump’s presumptive “White House AI and Crypto Czar,” David Sacks, has strong views on OpenAI’s pivot to “for-profit” and deep ties to Elon Musk. 

Trump announced the appointment of Sacks — a former tech executive and member of the so-called “PayPal Mafia,” whose members include dozens of tech luminaries, such as Musk, YouTube co-founder Steven Chen and investment mogul Peter Thiel — on his Truth Social account on Dec. 5.

The news prompted generally positive responses from the crypto community, as Sacks is reported to be a staunch Solana supporter and multi-coin investor. 

Sacks’ influence is also likely to spur a modicum of positivity from the artificial intelligence community. He’s spoken at great length about the perceived dangers of government overreach when it comes to AI technologies, saying on several occasions that he believes in open-source AI solutions and a hands-off approach that allows the industry to self-regulate. 

However, there may be one person in the burgeoning US AI industry with good reason to be concerned over Sacks’ presumptive appointment, and that’s OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman.

In an October episode of the All-In podcast featuring guest Mark Cuban, one of the few areas in which the two found common ground was in their negative view of OpenAI’s business restructuring.

OpenAI’s pivot to for-profit

Elon Musk was an early investor — to the tune of $50 million — and co-founder of OpenAI, which was initially launched in 2015 as a nonprofit research tank. 

In the time since, under Altman’s leadership, the company has launched what it calls a “for-profit branch,” enabling it to continue scaling its monetized operations in support of its nonprofit research. 

Musk, who operates a competing artificial intelligence company, xAI, has sued OpenAI to block the pivot to for-profit.

On Dec. 2, lawyers for Musk and xAI filed a motion in a US court in California asking a judge to block the move as the lawsuit moves forward. 

Related: OpenAI secures $1.5B funding from SoftBank, allows employees to cash out

Sacks and Cuban commented on the OpenAI story in the podcast episode, which boasts more than 426,000 views as of the time of this article’s publication. According to Sacks, OpenAI tricked Musk into investing in what was thought to be a philanthropic endeavor. 

Citing reports that OpenAI was (at the time) looking to raise $6 billion at a valuation of $157 billion — which it subsequently did — and had warned investors not to invest in rival companies such as Musk’s xAI, Sacks said the company had “gone from nonprofit philanthropy to piranha, for-profit company.” 

Cuban shared the sentiment, stating that he “wouldn’t do business with people like that.” He added:

“To me, that’s just wrong. And it catches up to you. When people f— over investors, it always comes back. Karma is a bitch in business, too.”

In what could perhaps be considered an ironic twist, Altman was among the first to congratulate Sacks on his presumptive appointment as White House Crypto and AI Czar.

Shortly thereafter, however, Musk replied to Altman’s post with an emoji indicating he was laughing so hard that he was crying:

Ryan Selkis, former CEO of the Messari cryptocurrency exchange who stepped down in mid-2024 after posting inflammatory statements on X in defense of Trump, joined the conversation, responding to Altman’s post with a meme and what appeared to be a sarcastic remark: “This makes me so happy.”

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