- An Elon Musk-led group of investors wants to control OpenAI for $97.4 billion.
- “It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk wrote.
- In a tweet, Sam Altman wrote “no thank you” and suggested OpenAI buy X instead.
Sam Altman and Elon Musk got in a back-and-forth on X on Monday over the latter’s $97.4 billion bid for control of OpenAI.
Musk and a group of investors, including his AI company X.AI, submitted the unsolicited offer to the OpenAI board on Monday. Marc Toberoff, a lawyer representing the group, confirmed the offer in a statement provided to Business Insider. The statement said the offer was for “all assets” of OpenAI, Inc.
“At x.AI, we live by the values I was promised OpenAI would follow. We’ve made Grok open source, and we respect the rights of content creators,” Musk said in the statement. “It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was. We will make sure that happens.”
In October OpenAI was valued at $157 billion during a funding round that raised $6.6 billion. BI reported in January that SoftBank, a Japanese investment holding company, was preparing to make an investment in OpenAI in a deal that would value the company at around $300 billion.
Backers of the bid — which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal — include Baron Capital Group, Inc., Valor Management LLC, Atreides Management, LP, Vy Fund III, L.P., Emanuel Capital Management, LLC, and Eight Partners VC, LLC.
The Journal reported that the investor group bid to acquire the OpenAI nonprofit, which controls the rest of OpenAI. Altman wants to convert the startup to a for-profit company, but to do so, the charitable arm must be compensated for its assets. Settling on a fair value for these assets is complex.
The Musk investor group said in a statement on Monday that their bid for OpenAI is designed to ensure that the charitable arm’s assets are fairly valued and that it gets paid appropriately before any conversion to a for-profit business. “As we understand the OpenAI, Inc. Board’s present intentions, they will give up majority ownership and control over OpenAI’s entire for-profit business in exchange for some minority share of a new, consolidated for-profit entity. Who on Earth would make that trade?” Toberoff, the lawyer representing the investors, said in a statement.
“If the Board is determined to relinquish OpenAI, Inc.’s assets, it is in the public’s interest to ensure that OpenAI, Inc. is compensated at fair market value. That value cannot be determined by insiders negotiating on both sides of the same table,” he continued.
Shortly after news of the bid broke, Altman appeared to respond in a post on X, writing: “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Musk replied: “Swindler.”
In another post on X, Musk wrote, “Scam Altman” in reference to the OpenAI CEO.
Representatives for OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment from BI.
Altman and Musk co-founded OpenAI as a non-profit in 2015, but Musk left the company in 2018 and has been publicly critical of it and Altman since. Musk has especially criticized OpenAI’s decision to transition to a for-profit structure.
The change, announced by OpenAI in September last year, would move its business out from under the control of its nonprofit board. OpenAI has said the move would help it attract more funding and help it become an “enduring company.”
It’s unclear how the Musk-led offer would impact that structural change, but the Tesla billionaire has been highly critical of OpenAI’s move to for-profit status.
In March 2024 Musk sued Altman and OpenAI, accusing the company of betraying its founding principles, before dropping the lawsuit months later. In August 2024 he filed another lawsuit against Altman and OpenAI, accusing them of “manipulating” him into co-founding the company as a nonprofit.
OpenAI has dismissed Musk’s accusations. In response to the criticism last year, OpenAI published emails in March 2024 that it said showed the SpaceX CEO was previously interested in moving the company to a for-profit model and wanted it to merge with Tesla.
