Putting a price on his skills and talent? How dare he!

That’s not what extort means.

It DID work for Anthony Levandowski, for a while: According to Wikipedia, Google bought two companies he started as side projects while working for Google.

It kind of boggles my mind that they would not anticipate this pattern eventually ending badly.

if he is, this is probably just a negotiating tactic, everyones playing hardball, what fun