An investment group led by Elon Musk has made an unsolicited offer of $97.4 billion for the non-profit that controls OpenAI, the latest provocation in the increasingly bitter feud between the world’s richest man and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the fate of ChatGPT’s creator.
Marc Toberoff, Musk’s attorney, said he submitted a bid for all the nonprofit’s assets to OpenAI’s board of directors Monday, according to a Wall Street Journal report. In a statement, Musk said “it is time” OpenAI returns to the “open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was.”
Altman dismissively swatted away the bid, with a personal dig. “[N]o thank you, but we will buy twitter [sic] for $9.74 billion if you want,” he tweeted Monday, poking fun at Musk’s social-media platform, now known as X. [A recent $6.6 billion funding round values OpenAI at about $157 billion and another rumored cash injection could soon inflate the figure to $260 billion.]
Whether Musk is serious or another lark is water cooler material, but what is not debatable is the pressure his move puts on OpenAI and its long-term business strategy.
“OpenAI’s board is faced with more than a business decision. This is a test of OpenAI’s dedication to its founding principles and the strength of its governance to uphold them.” Songyee Yoon, founder of a venture capital firm that invests in AI native companies and an expert in AI ethics, said in an email. “At stake is the organization’s commitment to advancing artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity. The key question is clear: Does this move reinforce or weaken that purpose?”
The surprise bid by Musk’s consortium coincides with a slew of legal actions by Musk against OpenAI in a bid to force the generative artificial intelligence (AI) pioneer to auction off a portion of its business. An injunction filed in November aims to end OpenAI’s conversion into a for-profit entity and prevent OpenAI from engaging in anticompetitive behavior.
Musk, whose xAI happens to be a rival of OpenAI, has filed another lawsuit against OpenAI for allegedly putting “profit over humanity.”
The antagonisms don’t end there. Shortly after OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle Corp. joined President Donald Trump last month to launch Stargate, an infrastructure plan to raise up to $500 billion for the construction of massive data centers to meet AI energy requirements. Musk disparaged the project. Among his cutting remarks: SoftBank, which reportedly is also discussing investing $40 billion in OpenAI, did not have money for Stargate.
Hostilities between Musk and OpenAI have only worsened since he co-founded the company in 2015 with Altman and others. Though Musk “agreed that a for-profit was the next step for OpenAI to advance the mission” in mid-2017, by the fall he had “demanded majority equity” and the title of CEO, according to OpenAI. Musk subsequently resigned as OpenAI co-chair in March 2018.
