Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc., ahead of the 60th presidential inauguration parade at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 20, 2025.
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Elon Musk is leading a group of investors in offering to buy control of OpenAI for $97.4 billion, CNBC confirmed.
The offer is for the nonprofit that oversees the artificial intelligence startup behind ChatGPT. In a statement sent to CNBC, Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff said he submitted the offer on Monday.
“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Toberoff wrote.
The consortium of investors includes Musk, his startup xAI, and long-time investors in his other businesses including, Baron Capital Group, Valor, Atreides, Vy Capital, Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC, and an investment vehicle led by Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel.
The statement from Toberoff said that the offer is “to purchase all assets of OpenAI, Inc.” with funds to be “used exclusively to further OpenAI, Inc.’s original charitable mission.”
In a post on X, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” Musk then replied to Atlman on X, with “swindler,” and in a reply to a different user, called him “Scam Altman.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the unsolicited bid on Monday.
Musk, who is a top advisor to President Donald Trump, is in the middle of a heated legal and public relations battle with Altman. They were two of the co-founders of OpenAI in 2015, establishing the entity as a nonprofit focused on AI research.
OpenAI has since emerged as a giant in generative AI, launching ChatGPT in 2022 and setting off a wave of investment in new tools and infrastructure for next-generation AI products and services. SoftBank is close to finalizing a $40 billion investment in OpenAI at a $260 billion valuation, sources told CNBC’s David Faber last week. Microsoft has been the biggest backer to date.
Musk is suing OpenAI, accusing it of antitrust violations and to try and keep it from converting into a for-profit corporation.
Meanwhile, OpenAI partnered with SoftBank and Oracle in a project announced by Trump right after his inauguration called Stargate, which calls on the companies to invest billions of dollars in AI infrastructure in the U.S. The Journal reported that xAI could merge with OpenAI if a deal were to occur.
Toberoff sent a letter to the attorneys general in California and Delaware on Jan. 7, asking that bidding be opened up for OpenAI.
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