A consortium of investors led by Elon Musk, which includes Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel through his personal investment fund, has offered $97.37 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, a surprise twist on Musk’s raging battle with OpenAI chief Sam Altman.
The consortium said it is “prepared to consider matching or exceeding higher bids.”
Marc Toberoff, an attorney representing the investors, said in a statement the unsolicited offer was sent to OpenAI’s board of directors.
“These funds will be used exclusively to further OpenAI, Inc.’s original charitable mission. “If Sam Altman and the present OpenAI, Inc. Board of Directors are intent on becoming a fully for-profit corporation, it is vital that the charity be fairly compensated for what its leadership is taking away from it: control over the most transformative technology of our time,” Toberoff said.
In a response on X this afternoon with a bit of a dig, Altman wrote, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” Musk acquired the platform he renamed X for $44 billion in 2022.
Musk called the OpenAI CEO “Scam Altman.”
Musk was a co-founder with Altman of OpenAI in 2015 initially as a charitable enterprise. He left before the company took off and subsequently launched his own AI venture, xAI. He has twice sued Altman for betraying OpenAI’s charitable roots. Altman created a for-profit subsidiary to raise cash (Microsoft is a big investor) and is planning to spin that out.
“At x.AI, we live by the values I was promised OpenAI would follow. We’ve made Grok open source, and we respect the rights of content creators,” said Musk in a statement today. “It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was. We will make sure that happens.”
“As we understand the OpenAI, Inc. Board’s present intentions, they will give up majority ownership and control over OpenAI’s entire for-profit business in exchange for some minority share of a new, consolidated for-profit entity. Who on Earth would make that trade? If the Board is determined to relinquish OpenAI, Inc.’s assets, it is in the public’s interest to ensure that OpenAI, Inc. is compensated at fair market value. That value cannot be determined by insiders negotiating on both sides of the same table. After all, public is OpenAI, Inc.’s beneficiary, and a sweetheart deal between insiders does not serve the public interest. As the co-founder of OpenAI and the most innovative and successful tech industry leader in history, Musk is the person best positioned to protect and grow OpenAI’s technology,” Toberoff added.
Those sentiments were expressed in letter to the California and Delaware Attorneys General in January, urging the office to “provide a process for competitive bidding to actually determine that fair market value.”
As the AI wars heat up, President Donald Trump recently pitted Musk (who has also been making waves as the new head of Department Of Government Efficiency) against Altman, announcing a $500 billion AI infrastructure investment plan called Stargate, including OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank. Musk was skeptical, saying, “They don’t actually have the money.”
It’s not been clear how the nonprofit will be valued in a spinoff but Musk’s offer sets out a number. His xAI is backing the deal with a consortium including Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital, 8VC, a venture firm led by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale and Emanuel.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the offer.
English (US) ·