A consortium of investors, led by tech mogul Elon Musk, has made a staggering $97.4 billion offer to acquire the nonprofit entity controlling OpenAI. According to sources familiar with the ongoing negotiations, the bid escalates a long-standing power struggle between Musk and OpenAI’s Chief Executive, Sam Altman.
The group of investors includes Vy Capital, Musk’s own artificial intelligence company Xai, Hollywood talent broker Ari Emanuel, and other backers. The sources requested anonymity as the discussions are still underway. Marc Toberoff, a Los Angeles-based lawyer who previously filed a lawsuit against OpenAI on Musk’s behalf, declined to comment.
Musk, one of OpenAI’s co-founders and early financial supporters, exited the company following a leadership dispute. Since then, he has founded Xai to compete directly with OpenAI. This new acquisition attempt comes just as OpenAI is preparing to close a major $40 billion funding round led by Japanese investment giant SoftBank.
According to insiders, the SoftBank-led investment will almost double OpenAI’s valuation to $300 billion, making it one of the world’s most valuable private firms, alongside Musk’s SpaceX and ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. The fund-raising round is expected to secure about $30 billion from SoftBank and an additional $10 billion from other investors.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on Musk’s offer, which is seen as a direct challenge to OpenAI’s leadership and future plans. OpenAI declined to comment on the bid, with one source indicating that the company had not formally received the proposal. However, CEO Sam Altman did take to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to post a cheeky response to the news.
“No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” Altman wrote.
Musk shot back with a terse reply: “Swindler,” reigniting the public feud between the two tech titans.
This high-stakes drama unfolds amid broader controversies surrounding OpenAI. The New York Times has sued the company and its partner Microsoft, alleging that their AI systems infringed on news content copyrights. Both OpenAI and Microsoft have denied these claims.
With Musk’s unexpected bid and OpenAI’s rising valuation, the battle for control of the AI sector’s future continues to intensify.
