A consortium led by Elon Musk has made an unsolicited $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI’s operating assets, but CEO Sam Altman and the board appear unwilling to entertain the offer. The bid marks the latest escalation in Musk’s ongoing legal and public battle with OpenAI, the company he co-founded in 2015 but later left. Altman dismissed the bid outright, taking a jab at Musk on X, formerly Twitter, saying, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Key Takeaways:
- Musk’s bid, backed by xAI and other investors, aims to take control of OpenAI’s nonprofit assets.
- The offer challenges OpenAI’s planned conversion into a for-profit corporation.
- OpenAI’s board, aligned with Altman, reportedly intends to reject the bid outright.
- Altman suggests Musk is attempting to slow down a competitor rather than making a serious acquisition attempt.
Musk’s offer, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, values OpenAI’s nonprofit assets significantly higher than previous estimates. His legal team argues that OpenAI’s planned restructuring—where the nonprofit would retain a 25% minority stake—fails to reflect the true market value of its assets. Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, described the nonprofit board’s willingness to relinquish control in exchange for a minority stake as irrational.
no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want
— Sam Altman (@sama) February 10, 2025
The bid comes as OpenAI is in the midst of a complex transition to a for-profit entity. Altman has positioned the restructuring as necessary to secure investment for AI development. OpenAI is also in discussions with SoftBank for a $40 billion funding round that could value the company as high as $300 billion.
Musk, now running his own AI company, xAI, has been an outspoken critic of OpenAI’s trajectory, accusing it of abandoning its original open-source mission. His ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI claims Altman and the board have prioritized profit over public benefit, an allegation OpenAI has denied.
Legal experts suggest the offer, while unlikely to be accepted, raises questions about whether OpenAI’s nonprofit arm is being fairly compensated in the transition. Musk’s team argues that an auction for OpenAI’s nonprofit stake would ensure a fair market valuation, a point that could draw the attention of regulators in California and Delaware.
Altman and OpenAI appear unbothered by the offer. Speaking at an AI summit in Paris, Altman dismissed Musk’s move as an attempt to slow down a competitor. “I think it’s to slow down a competitor and catch up with his thing.”
For now, Musk’s bid seems more like a high-stakes maneuver to complicate OpenAI’s restructuring than a viable acquisition attempt. We'll see whether regulators take Musk’s valuation argument seriously, but for Altman and OpenAI, the answer is clear: “No, thank you.”