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Reuters

A consortium led by Elon Musk said on Monday it has offered US$97.4 billion to buy the non-profit that controls OpenAI, another salvo in the billionaire’s fight to block the artificial intelligence start-up from transitioning to a for-profit firm.
Musk’s bid is likely to ratchet up long-standing tensions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the future of the ChatGPT maker at the heart of a boom in generative AI technology.
Altman on Monday promptly posted on X: “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want”.
Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a non-profit, but left before the company took off. He founded the competing AI start-up xAI in 2023.

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of tech and social media company X, is a close ally of US President Donald Trump. He spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump, and leads the Department of Government Efficiency, a new arm of the White House tasked with radically shrinking the federal bureaucracy.
Musk recently criticised a US$500 billion OpenAI-led project announced by Trump at the White House.
OpenAI is now trying to transition into a for-profit from a non-profit entity, which it says is required to secure the capital needed for developing the best AI models.
Musk sued Altman and others in August last year, claiming they violated contract provisions by putting profit ahead of the public good in the push to advance AI. In November, he asked a US district judge for a preliminary injunction blocking OpenAI from converting to a for-profit structure.
Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman says the founders originally approached him to fund a non-profit focused on developing AI to benefit humanity, but that it was now focused on making money.
“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk said in a statement on Monday. “We will make sure that happens.”

Musk and OpenAI backer Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“Musk’s bid puts another wrinkle into OpenAI’s quest to remove the nonprofit’s control over its for-profit entity,” said Rose Chan Loui, executive director of the UCLA Law Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofits.
“This bid sets a marker for the valuation of the nonprofit’s economic interests,” she said. “If OpenAI values the non-profit’s interests at less than what Musk is offering, then they would have to show why.”
The consortium led by Musk includes his AI start-up xAI, Baron Capital Group, Emanuel Capital and others.
XAI could merge with OpenAI following a deal, according to the Wall Street Journal which first reported Musk’s offer earlier on Monday. XAI recently raised US$6 billion from investors at a valuation of US$40 billion, sources have told Reuters.
“This (bid) is definitely throwing a wrench in things,” said Jonathan Macey, a Yale Law School professor specialising in corporate governance.


“The non-profit is supposed to take money to do whatever good deeds, and if OpenAI prefers to sell it to somebody else for less money, it’s a concern for protecting the interests of the beneficiaries of the not-for-profit.”
OpenAI was valued at US$157 billion in its last funding round, cementing its status as one of the most valuable private companies in the world. SoftBank Group is in talks to lead a funding round of up to US$40 billion in OpenAI at a valuation of US$300 billion, including the new funds, Reuters reported in January.
Aside from any antitrust implications, a deal this size would need Musk and his consortium to raise enormous funds.
Musk’s stock in Tesla is valued at roughly US$165 billion, according to LSEG data, but his leverage with banks is likely to be thin after his US$44 billion buyout of what was then called Twitter in 2022.
To finance such a bid, Musk could sell part of his stake in Tesla or take a loan against his stake, or use his stake in rocket company SpaceX that is worth tens of billions of dollars as collateral, according to an uninvolved investment banker, who requested anonymity.
“Musk’s offer to buy OpenAI’s non-profit should significantly complicate OpenAI’s current fundraising and the process of converting into a for-profit corporation,” said Gil Luria, analyst at D.A. Davidson.
“The offer seems to be backed by more credible investors … OpenAI may not be able to ignore it. It will be the fiduciary responsibility of OpenAI’s board to decide whether this is a better offer, which could call into question the offer from SoftBank.”


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Artificial intelligence

Elon Musk-led group makes US$97.4 billion bid for control of OpenAI

Elon Musk’s bid is likely to ratchet up long-standing tensions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo: AFP

Elon Musk’s bid to buy non-profit that controls OpenAI could raise tensions with the firm’s CEO Sam Altman. Photo: Reuters

Elon Musk. Photo: Getty Images

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. File photo: TNS

Elon Musk flexes his power in Washington as DOGE shakes US government agencies

Elon Musk: the world’s richest man and the leader of the US president’s cost-cutting efforts. Photo: Reuters

A person looks from a window of the US Treasury Department. Photo: Reuters

Donald Trump and Elon Musk on the campaign trail last year. Photo: AFP

Elon Musk says he doesn’t want to buy TikTok’s US business after all

Elon Musk walks on Capitol Hill in Washington in December. Photo: Reuters

Trump’s AI ambition and China’s DeepSeek overshadow AI summit in Paris

French President Emmanuel Macron answers journalists’ questions on the eve of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit, at the Grand Palais in Paris, France on Sunday. Photo: AFP

DeepSeek founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng. Photo: Weibo

Deepseek has escalated the wider geopolitical showdown between Beijing and Washington over tech supremacy. Photo: Reuters

Zuckerberg visits White House to discuss US tech leadership

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Photo: AP

‘It’s beyond repair’: Elon Musk targets closure of US humanitarian aid agency

A Filipino serviceman casts a shadow on USAID relief boxes delivered to Manila for the victims of Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. Photo: Reuters

A woman protests against Elon Musk outside the US Agency for International Development (USAID) building in Washington on Monday. Photo: Reuters

Elon Musk has estimated the Trump administration can cut US$1 trillion from the US deficit next year. Photo: AFP

Congressman Jamie Raskin speaks outside the USAID building in Washington on Monday. Photo: Reuters

Donald Trump speaks to Musk at a SpaceX test flight in November last year. Photo: Getty Images/TNS

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says ‘no thank you’, apparently responding to the bid


OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says ‘no thank you’, apparently responding to the bid.


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