Elon Musk offers $97 bn for OpenAI, Sam Altman mocks with $9 bn counteroffer for X

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who earlier sued OpenAI twice in 2024, offered to buy the company for $97 billion along with another group of investors, according to recent reports.

However, its CEO Sam Altman rejected the offer responding with a strong “no thanks” and offered a bid on X.

Taking to X, Altman rejected the offer and wrote, "No thanks, but we’d be willing to buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you’re interested,” in a playful reference to Musk's $44 billion purchase of Twitter, now X, in 2022.

A Wall Street Journal report revealed that Musk and his investment group officially proposed to OpenAI’s board to take control of the company and return it to its nonprofit origins.

"If Sam Altman and the current board want OpenAI to become a fully for-profit company, it’s important that the charity is fairly compensated for losing control of such groundbreaking technology,” Musk’s lawyer Marc Toberoff stated.

Musk sued OpenAI for the first time in July 2024 as he accused the company of acting in a way that deviated from its founding principles, especially its shift toward a more commercialized, profit-driven structure.

He felt that this change would put OpenAI's work at risk of being controlled by corporate interests rather than focusing on the broader benefits for humanity.

Musk again filed a lawsuit in August 2024 accusing OpenAI of rushing to develop “artificial general intelligence” technology to “maximize profits.” He also accused the company of engaging in racketeering.

The lawsuit against OpenAI originated from an increasing conflict between Musk and the company he helped found as he was the initial backer of OpenAI, a nonprofit organization focused on artificial intelligence.

The legal battle between the two highlights the conflict between Musk’s vision for AI as an open, nonprofit endeavor and OpenAI’s pursuit of growth and profitability.

Over time, Musk became increasingly unhappy with the route the company was taking, especially after its shift to a “capped-profit” model, as he thought it compromised with the company’s original ideology.

Musk has also expressed concerns about OpenAI's leadership and its potential influence over AI technology.