On Monday, a team of investors led by Elon Musk offered a US$97.4 billion (approx. UGX358.27 trillion) bid to purchase OpenAI. Marc Toberoff, Musk’s lawyer confirmed the news with The Wall Street Journal.
OpenAI has been working to restructure itself away from its original non-profit status. The artificial intelligence company also operates a for-profit subsidiary, and Musk’s team offer could complicate the startup’s plans.
“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,” said Toberoff.
Shortly after the news broke, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted his reaction on X, saying, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for US$9.74 billion if you want.” Musk who bought Twitter in 2022 for $44bn and renamed it X responded to Altman’s post, saying, “Swindler.”
See also: Twitter Has Begun Rebranding to X
Musk co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman and other individuals in 2015 but left the board in 2018 amid clashes with its management. Last year, The Tesla CEO filed a lawsuit against OpenAI accusing the company of no longer being an open-source non-profit organization. Initially, OpenAI was supposed to make its technology “freely available” to the public to “benefit humanity”, but it has become closed-source and shifted focus to maximizing profits for Microsoft, Musk alleged in the lawsuit. The Musk-led team’s offer is positioning the move as a bid to refocus OpenAI on open-sourced AI, as was its initial aim.
“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk said in a statement to The Journal, by way of Toberoff. “We will make sure that happens.”
Musk’s AI firm, xAI, is involved with the bid, and several investment firms, including one run by Joe Lonsdale, who co-founded the stealth government contractor Palantir, are also involved. Ari Emanuel, the CEO of the entertainment company Endeavor, also joined the group through his investment fund.
Toberoff told the Wall Street Journal that Musk and the group are ready to match or go higher than any other bids on OpenAI that may arise.
See also: Elon Musk’s xAI Has Now Made Grok Chatbot Open Source
