Elon Musk is leading a $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI‘s nonprofit arm, escalating his feud with CEO Sam Altman over control of the influential artificial intelligence company.
The unsolicited offer, according to The Wall Street Journal, is being submitted to OpenAI’s board Monday through Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff, threatens to complicate Altman’s plans to convert OpenAI into a for-profit entity and pursue a massive AI infrastructure project called Stargate.
Altman quickly dismissed the takeover attempt on social media platform X, writing: “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” Musk fired back, calling Altman a “Swindler” and later posting “Scam Altman.”
The bid is backed by Musk’s AI company xAI along with investors including Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital, and Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel, the Journal reported. The investor group has pledged to match or exceed any competing offers.
“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.”
The Information reports that OpenAI’s 10-person board is backing Altman against Musk’s monthslong campaign to prevent OpenAI’s for-profit arm from separating from its nonprofit parent. Musk has argued the nonprofit would be undervalued in the conversion process. Altman, meanwhile, told his staff that the board of directors has no interest in Musk’s bid.
The takeover attempt comes as OpenAI pursues a $40 billion funding round led by SoftBank that would value the company at up to $300 billion. The company is also working to spin out its nonprofit arm, which currently controls the organization.
Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit before departing in 2019. He has since filed multiple legal complaints arguing that OpenAI betrayed its original mission by creating a for-profit subsidiary and partnering with Microsoft.
OpenAI has dismissed Musk’s claims as baseless, releasing documents in December that it says show Musk previously supported converting to a for-profit structure but left after failing to gain control of the company.