A consortium led by Elon Musk announced Monday that it has offered €94.5 billion ($97.4 billion) to acquire the nonprofit overseeing OpenAI, marking the latest move in the billionaire’s efforts to prevent the AI startup from shifting to a for-profit model.
Musk’s bid is expected to escalate ongoing tensions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the ChatGPT maker’s direction as a leader in generative AI. In response, Altman 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 nonprofit but departed before its rise to prominence. In 2023, he launched xAI, a rival artificial intelligence venture.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and owner of tech and social media company X, is a close ally of President Donald Trump. He contributed over €242 billion ($250 million) to support Trump’s election and currently heads the Department of Government Efficiency, a newly established White House division focused on dramatically reducing the federal bureaucracy.
Recently, Musk criticised a €484 bilion ($500 billion) OpenAI-led initiative unveiled by Trump at the White House. Meanwhile, OpenAI is working to transition from a nonprofit to a for-profit entity, arguing that the shift is necessary to attract the investment required for advancing its AI models.