Musk-led group makes $97.4 bln bid for control of OpenAI

A consortium led by Elon Musk offered $97.4 billion (AED 357 trillion) to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, another salvo in the billionaire's fight to block the artificial intelligence startup from transitioning to a for-profit firm.

Musk's bid is likely to ratchet up longstanding tensions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the future of the ChatGPT maker at the heart of a boom in generative AI technology. Altman on Monday promptly posted on X: "no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want."

Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit, but left before the company took off. He founded the competing AI startup xAI in 2023.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of tech and social media company X, is a close ally of President Donald Trump. He spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump, and leads the Department of Government Efficiency, a new arm of the White House tasked with radically shrinking the federal bureaucracy. Musk recently criticised a $500 billion (AED 1.8 trillion) OpenAI-led project announced by Trump at the White House.

OpenAI is now trying to transition into a for-profit from a nonprofit entity, which it says is required to secure the capital needed for developing the best AI models.

no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want

— Sam Altman (@sama) February 10, 2025

Musk sued Altman and others in August last year, claiming they violated contract provisions by putting profit ahead of the public good in the push to advance AI. In November, he asked a US district judge for a preliminary injunction blocking OpenAI from converting to a for-profit structure.

Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman says the founders originally approached him to fund a nonprofit focused on developing AI to benefit humanity, but that it was now focused on making money.

"It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was," Musk said in a statement on Monday. "We will make sure that happens."

"Musk's bid puts another wrinkle into OpenAI's quest to remove the nonprofit's control over its for-profit entity," said executive director of the UCLA Law Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofits, Rose Chan Loui.

"This bid sets a marker for the valuation of the nonprofit's economic interests," she said. "If OpenAI values the nonprofit's interests at less than what Musk is offering, then they would have to show why."

The consortium led by Musk includes his AI startup xAI, Baron Capital Group, Emanuel Capital and others.

XAI could merge with OpenAI following a deal, according to the Wall Street Journal which first reported Musk's offer earlier on Monday. XAI recently raised $6 billion (AED 22 billion) from investors at a valuation of $40 billion (AED 142 billion), sources told Reuters.