A consortium of investors led by Elon Musk is offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, upping the stakes in his battle with Sam Altman over the company behind ChatGPT, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, said he submitted a bid for all the nonprofit’s assets to OpenAI’s board of directors Monday.
The unsolicited offer adds a major complication to Altman’s carefully laid plans for OpenAI’s future, including converting it to a for-profit company and spending up to $500 billion on AI infrastructure through a joint venture called Stargate. He and Musk are already fighting in court over the direction of OpenAI.
“It was time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk said in a statement provided by by Toberoff “We will make sure that happens.”
Altman responded to Musk on X writing, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” using the previous name for the Musk-owned social-media platform and moving the decimal point in the billionaire’s bid for OpenAI one space to the left.
The New York Times reported: A group of investors led by Elon Musk has made a $97.4 billion bid to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, according to two people familiar with the bid, elating a yearlong tussle for control of the company between Mr. Musk and OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman.
The consortium includes Vy Capital and Tai, Mr. Musk’s artificial intelligence company, as well as the Hollywood power-broker Ari Emanuel and other investors, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are ongoing.
OpenAI declined to comment on the bid. The company has not yet seen the bid, according to a person familiar with OpenAI’s potential response.
Mr. Musk was one of OpenAI’s co-founders and one of its initial investors but left after a power struggle. Mr. Musk also created his own A.I company to compete head on with Mr. Altman’s company.
The unsolicited offer landed as OpenAI was set to complete a $40 billion fund raising deal that would nearly double the high-profile company’s valuation from just four months ago.
TechCrunch reported: A team of investors led by Elon Musk submitted a $97.6 billion bid to purchase OpenAI on Monday. The news comes by way of Musk’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, who confirmed the reporting with The Wall Street Journal.
The unsolicited bid is the latest escalation by Musk in his war with co-founder Sam Altman, with whom he cofounded OpenAI with numerous other individuals back in 2015.
Musk is already embroiled in a legal dispute with OpenAI, filing a 2024 injunction against its effort to transition away from nonprofit status. The Musk-led team is positioning the move as a bid to retain the organizations initial open source focus.
In my opinion, The fight between Elon Musk and Sam Altman over OpenAI might become a big problem for the both of them.