Given his history of interacting with his audience through memes and internet humor, Musk’s most recent pseudonym change has generated conjecture.
Just hours after a group led by billionaire Elon Musk proposed $97.4 billion to purchase OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, Musk has once again changed his X username to “Harry Bolz.”
Musk has previously gone by this alias. He had briefly adopted the slang word for “hairy balls”—Harry Bolz—as his pseudonym in 2023. “Tbh, I’m just hoping a media organization that takes itself way too seriously writes a story about Harry Bōlz,” Musk had quipped on social media at the time.
Given his history of interacting with his audience through memes and internet humor, Musk’s most recent pseudonym change has generated speculation. A combination of the popular gaming terms “kek” and “maximus,” he altered his name to “Kekius Maximus” in December 2023, alluding to Russell Crowe’s Gladiator role. Discussions concerning his allusions to online subcultures were stoked by his profile photo at the time, which showed Pepe the Frog in a gladiator costume.
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has stated unequivocally that the AI company is “not for sale.” Altman mockingly replied on X after the $97.4 billion deal was announced on Monday night, stating, “No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for 9.74 billion dollars if you want.”
Altman reaffirmed OpenAI’s stance while speaking at the AI Action Summit in Paris, saying, “We’re happy to buy Twitter, though.” Altman rejected Musk’s offer in a different interview with Axios, stating:
“Elon has long attempted to seize control of OpenAI in one way or another. Alright, so this is the episode for this week. You can’t buy OpenAI. The goal of OpenAI is not for sale. Not to mention that a competitor who is unable to outperform us in the market and is merely attempting to claim, “I’m going to acquire this,” with complete disrespect for the purpose, is likely to get there.”
Musk, an OpenAI co-founder, left the business in 2018 and has subsequently expressed disapproval of its course. The ongoing competition between the leadership of OpenAI and Tesla has taken on a new dimension with his most recent proposal and the rebranding of his X avatar.
