OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman rejected a bid worth $97 billion from a group of investors led by Elon Musk.
On Monday, a group of investors led by Musk, the Tesla CEO and X owner, offered nearly $100 billion to acquire OpenAI, the parent company of AI chatbot tool ChatGPT, which stunned users when it was released in 2022.
After its last funding round, OpenAI was valued at $157 billion.
The offer is backed by Musk’s rival firm xAI, along with several investors including Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of stealth government contractor Palantir and Ari Emanuel, CEO of entertainment company Endeavour.
OpenAI’s chief, Sam Altman, rejected the bid, posting on Musk’s X: “No, thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” to which Musk responded, “Swindler.””
Despite Altman’s response, the deal may still be considered and will likely be discussed by OpenAI’s board of directors.
Billionaires Battle
Altman and Musk, who both helped found OpenAI, have been in an ongoing feud since the company’s launch in 2015.
OpenAI was originally created as a non-profit with a mission to use AI to benefit humans.
Musk, who left the board in 2018 due to internal conflict, criticised the commercial direction of the company and has initiated legal action against the firm claiming it betrayed its founding principles. This, Musk claims, is a part of the reason for the offer.
Some onlookers are sceptical about the offer, especially as Musk’s AI firm xAI is for-profit.
“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,” said Musk in a 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.”
OpenAI has a complicated structure of both non-profit and for-profit arms. The company has maintained that its commercial restructuring, which is planned to complete in 2026, is essential to the firm’s longevity.
Musk’s offer could complicate the company’s restructuring plans.
