Elon Musk Leads $97.4B Bid To Acquire OpenAI Assets

Elon Musk and a group of investors placed a $97.4 billion bid on Monday to acquire OpenAI’s nonprofit assets, further increasing tensions within the company and among stakeholders.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, confirmed the unsolicited offer took place—a move that could impact Sam Altman’s plans for the company, as he seeks to restructure it into a for-profit entity.

“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” said Musk in a statement shared by Toberoff. “We will make sure that happens.”

Sam Altman shared publicly on X—Musk’s social media platform—his rejection of the offer. “No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” wrote Altman in a post, using the platform’s previous name before Musk rebranded it.

no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want

— Sam Altman (@sama) February 10, 2025

In October last year, OpenAI reached a $157 billion valuation after raising $6.6 billion in a funding round, almost doubling its value in less than 10 months. The interest in transitioning the company into a for-profit entity was later confirmed.

Musk, was among the founders of OpenAI back in 2015—when the startup was created and conceived as a non-profit institution—but left in 2018, after disputes with Altman. Since then, Musk has filed multiple lawsuits against OpenAI.

Musk has been working on multiple strategies to block OpenAI’s shift into a for-profit company as he filed an injunction against Microsoft and OpenAI in December for anticompetitive practices, and now intends to buy the non-profit assets to gain back control.