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Elon Musk and a group of co-investors have submitted a near-$100bn bid for the non-profit that controls OpenAI, complicating chief executive Sam Altman’s attempt to convert the start-up to a for-profit entity.
Musk submitted the bid to OpenAI’s board of directors on Monday, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
Shortly after the Wall Street Journal first reported the unsolicited $97.4bn approach, Altman said on social media site X, “no thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want”. Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it X.
Altman is in the process of converting OpenAI into a for-profit, moving the company away from its roots as a non-profit research organisation.
Musk, whose start-up xAI is a direct competitor to OpenAI, has made multiple attempts to derail that effort. Last month, Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff called on the Delaware and California attorneys-general to force OpenAI to launch a competitive auction for the non-profit, which sits at the heart of the company.
OpenAI, which has said it is not entertaining external offers for the non-profit, declined to comment on the bid.
Musk’s offer for the non-profit is the latest salvo in a lengthy, bitter rivalry between the Tesla boss and Altman. The former collaborators are now competing to dominate artificial intelligence, raising tens of billions of dollars and building vast data centres. OpenAI is planning to develop $500bn in AI infrastructure in the coming years through a SoftBank-backed project called Stargate.
Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI who invested tens of millions of dollars into the fledgling company before leaving its board in 2018, has said that the conversion betrays the start-up’s founding mission. He has launched lawsuits against Altman and OpenAI.
OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit would involve spinning off the non-profit as a separate entity.
One of the main barriers to the conversion has been establishing a fair value for the non-profit which, under the current structure, controls the company. OpenAI, a private company which is in talks to raise new capital at a $260bn pre-money valuation, has no obligation to sell.
Separately as part of the company’s conversion to a for-profit, OpenAI had discussed a valuation of about $30bn for the non-profit entity, according to people with knowledge of the discussion. Musk’s attorneys have argued the figure should be far higher and called for a competitive bidding process.
A higher valuation would also mean a bigger payout for Musk, whose donation to the company in its early years would be returned many times over.
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