A consortium led by Elon Musk announced on Monday that it has offered $97.4 billion to acquire the non-profit organization overseeing OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.
This initiative is believed to be the latest move in Musk’s efforts to prevent his artificial intelligence venture from transitioning to a for-profit model.
Musk’s offer is expected to escalate the ongoing tension with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the direction of the ChatGPT maker as a leader in the field of generative AI.
In response to Musk’s offer, Sam Altman posted on X, “No thank you, but if you want, we’ll buy Twitter for $9.74 billion.”
Musk co-founded OpenAI as a non-profit organization with Altman in 2015 but later resigned due to disagreements over the company’s management. In 2023, he launched xAI, a rival artificial intelligence initiative.
Musk is a close ally of President Donald Trump. He contributed over $250 million to support Trump’s election and now heads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a newly created White House unit focused on significantly reducing federal bureaucracy.
Recently, Musk criticized the $500 billion OpenAI-led Stargate artificial intelligence initiative announced by Trump at the White House.
Meanwhile, OpenAI is working to transition from a non-profit to a for-profit organization, arguing that this change is necessary to attract the investment needed to advance AI models.
