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A group of investors led by Elon Musk made an unsolicited $97.4 billion bid to take control of OpenAI – adding new intrigue to the billionaire’s legal war with the ChatGPT maker and its CEO Sam Altman.
Musk’s stunning offer to buy the pioneering startup as it attempts to transition to a for-profit firm includes financing from prominent venture firms such as Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC, Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management and Vy Capital, and Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The bid also is being backed by Musk’s AI company xAI, which could merge with OpenAI following a deal, the outlet reported.
“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk said in a statement. “We will make sure that happens.”
Minutes after Musk’s team went public with the offer, Altman shot it down — and appeared to poke fun at the $44 billion price that Musk paid to buy X, formerly known as Twitter.
“No thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” Altman wrote on X.
Musk replied to Altman’s post with one word: “Swindler.”
Musk’s group is looking to buy the nonprofit entity that currently controls OpenAI and presented its offer to the AI giant’s board of directors on Monday, according to Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff.
The offer was submitted even as Musk actively sues OpenAI in an effort to upend Altman’s plans to turn OpenAI into a for-profit entity.
During a court hearing earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that parts of Musk’s lawsuit could proceed to trial, as long as Musk testifies on the stand.
Musk and his allies are ready to match any competing offers for the nonprofit, Toberoff told the Wall Street Journal.
“If Sam Altman and the present OpenAI Inc. Board of Directors are intent on becoming a fully for-profit corporation, it is vital that the charity be fairly compensated for what its leadership is taking away from it: control over the most transformative technology of our time,” Toberoff told the outlet.
Toberoff did not immediately return The Post’s request for comment.
Musk’s bid raises new questions about OpenAI’s future and who could ultimately control the business. OpenAI has insisted that the non-profit arm will receive the full value of its stake in the firm, though it will no longer oversee its operations.
OpenAI is planning to restructure as a for-profit public benefit corporation, in which leaders weigh both societal impact and profit when making decisions. Altman is expected to receive an ownership stake as part of the transition.
Last fall, the ChatGPT maker recently raised $6.6 billion at a $157 billion valuation. OpenAI has committed to completing the shift within the two years, or else investors will be allowed to renegotiate the valuation.
Musk co-founded OpenAI alongside Altman in 2015 and was a key early investor, but the two later fell out after having disagreements over the company’s long-term direction.
The tech billionaires have since become bitter rivals and have frequently traded public jabs while their firms compete to win the AI race.
When Altman appeared alongside President Trump and others at the White House to unveil a $500 billion “Stargate” AI infrastructure project last month, Musk publicly claimed that they didn’t have enough money to follow through on the plan.
Last year, Musk filed a broad amended lawsuit accusing OpenAI, key investor Microsoft, billionaire Reid Hoffman and others of violating federal antitrust law in a bid to dominate the AI market.
Musk alleges that OpenAI abandoned its original goal of developing AI to benefit humanity while transforming from a “tax-exempt charity to a $157 billion for-profit, market-paralyzing gorgon.”
OpenAI has repeatedly blasted Musk’s claims in the lawsuit as baseless and accused him of waging an “increasingly blusterous campaign to harass OpenAI for his own competitive advantage.”