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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, as Altman looks to take the ChatGPT-maker private. 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 organization’s initial open source focus.
“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk told The Journal, by way of Toberoff. “We will make sure that happens.” Musk’s own AI firm, xAI, is involved with the bid, leading to speculation that a successful acquisition could find the two companies merging.
Altman has — fittingly — responded to the offer via a cheeky X post, writing, “[N]o thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” Musk and investors famously purchased Twitter for $44 billion in 2022. TechCrunch has reached out to OpenAI for further comment.
