A consortium of investors led by Elon Musk has submitted a $97.4 billion bid to buy control of OpenAI, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Monday.
The Journal quoted Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, as saying that he formally presented the offer to OpenAI’s board of directors.
The move could disrupt CEO Sam Altman’s plan to turn OpenAI into a for-profit company and invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure through the Stargate project.
“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk was quoted as saying in a statement provided by Toberoff. “We will make sure that happens.”
Musk currently serves as the head of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a task force aiming to streamline federal operations and reduce wasteful spending
Altman responded on X, formerly Twitter, saying “no thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Altman and Musk co-founded OpenAI as a nonprofit in 2015, but after Musk's 2019 departure, Altman led its shift toward a for-profit model, now seeking to spin off the nonprofit while retaining equity in the new entity.
