World Wide Web Source Code is Latest NFT for Sale

Tim Berners-Lee’s code for the World Wide Web is being sold as an NFT by Sotheby’s. (AFP)
Tim Berners-Lee’s code for the World Wide Web is being sold as an NFT by Sotheby’s. (AFP)
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World Wide Web Source Code is Latest NFT for Sale

Tim Berners-Lee’s code for the World Wide Web is being sold as an NFT by Sotheby’s. (AFP)
Tim Berners-Lee’s code for the World Wide Web is being sold as an NFT by Sotheby’s. (AFP)

Tim Berners-Lee’s source code for the World Wide Web is the latest non-fungible token (NFT) to go up for sale.

Sotheby’s in New York is selling the program that paved the way for the internet we know today more than 30 years after its creation.

The sale started June 23 and ends on Wednesday. Bidding had reached $2.8 million on Friday.

The lot includes an animated version of Berners-Lee’s nearly 10,000 lines of code and a letter from the British-born computer scientist himself.

“Ten years ago, we wouldn’t have been able to do this,” said Cassandra Hatton, vice-president at Sotheby’s, referring to the recent boom in NFTs.

Hatton said this work is unique because of its importance for the creation of the World Wide Web.

“That changed every aspect of your life,” Hatton said. “We don’t even fully comprehend the impact that it has on our lives, and the impact that we will continue to have on our lives.”

An NFT is a digital object such as a drawing, animation, piece of music, photo or video with a certificate of authenticity created by blockchain technology that underlies cryptocurrency. It cannot be forged or otherwise manipulated.

NFTs currently generate several hundred million dollars in transactions every month.

NFT exchanges take place in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin on specialist sites but traditional auction houses are seeking to capitalize on the phenomenon.

The most expensive NFT ever was sold by Christie’s in March for $69.3 million.



Sam Altman Says Meta Offered $100 Million Bonuses to OpenAI Employees 

The logo of Meta is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 
The logo of Meta is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 
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Sam Altman Says Meta Offered $100 Million Bonuses to OpenAI Employees 

The logo of Meta is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 
The logo of Meta is seen at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, June 11, 2025. (Reuters) 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Meta has offered his employees bonuses of $100 million to recruit them, as the tech giant seeks to ramp up its artificial intelligence strategy.

The alleged attempts by Meta to hire OpenAI staffers are the latest signs of a frenzy to hire top engineers to develop AI models, and they come at a time when the Facebook owner is working on building its superintelligence unit to catch up with competitors.

Competition for AI talent has reached a feverish pitch as superstar researchers are being courted like professional athletes on the belief that individual contributors can make or break companies.

"They (Meta) started making giant offers to a lot of people on our team," Altman said on the Uncapped podcast that aired on Tuesday, hosted by his brother. "You know, like $100 million signing bonuses, more than that (in) compensation per year."

"At least, so far, none of our best people have decided to take them up on that," Altman said.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours, and Reuters could not verify the information.

"I've heard that Meta thinks of us as their biggest competitor," Altman said.

His comments come just days after Meta invested $14.3 billion in data-labeling startup Scale AI, and hired its top boss, Alexandr Wang, to lead its new superintelligence team.

Meta, once recognized as a leader in open-source AI models, has suffered from staff departures and has postponed the launches of new open-source AI models that could rival competitors like Google, China's DeepSeek and OpenAI.