Elon Musk has reacted to OpenAI’s “fake stock” warning for its investors. The tech billionaire who owns rival AI startup xAI has suggested that even the company’s authentic equity may be an illusion. This follows a rare public warning from OpenAI disavowing any involvement with crypto-like financial products claiming to offer a stake in its business. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, took to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to inform that the so-called “OpenAI tokens” are not shares in the company and emphasised that it has no partnership with Robinhood, was not involved in the offering, and does not endorse it. The organisation stated that any transfer of OpenAI equity requires its approval, and no such approval was granted. It also urged people to exercise caution.

What OpenAI said investors about its ‘fake stock’

In the X post, OpenAI wrote: “These ‘OpenAI tokens’ are not OpenAI equity. We did not partner with Robinhood, were not involved in this, and do not endorse it. Any transfer of OpenAI equity requires our approval—we did not approve any transfer. Please be careful.”This situation drew a response from Musk, an OpenAI co-founder, who replied to the company’s post with his own accusation on X saying: “Your ‘equity’ is fake.”

The controversy started when Robinhood, a well-known trading platform, introduced a new product for its European users. In a statement to Gizmodo, a Robinhood spokesperson said: “To cap off our recent crypto event, we announced a limited stock token giveaway on OpenAI and SpaceX to eligible European customers. These tokens give retail investors indirect exposure to private markets, opening up access, and are enabled by Robinhood’s ownership stake in a special purpose vehicle.”Robinhood used a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to acquire a stake in OpenAI and then issued digital tokens representing that stake, aiming to make private company shares easier to trade through tokenisation.The company’s CEO Vlad Tenev also took to X to explain: “At our recent crypto event, we announced a limited Stock Token giveaway on OpenAI and SpaceX to eligible European customers. While it is true that they aren’t technically ‘equity’ (you can see the precise dynamics in our Terms for those interested), the tokens effectively give retail investors exposure to these private assets. Our giveaway plants a seed for something much bigger, and since our announcement we’ve been hearing from many private companies that are eager to join us in the tokenization revolution. THANK YOU 🙏”