Elon Musk has reportedly offered $97.4 billion to acquire OpenAI, the nonprofit he co-founded in 2015. This move comes months after Musk sued OpenAI to prevent its transition to a for-profit model. His bid could further escalate tensions with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as they remain locked in a legal battle over the company’s direction.
Musk has been critical of OpenAI’s recent $500 billion Stargate project, announced at the White House after Donald Trump’s return to office. He questioned whether investors had enough funding to support the project. According to WSJ, Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, submitted the bid to OpenAI’s board on Monday. “It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk said in a statement. “We will make sure that happens.”
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Musk’s AI company, xAI, is backing the bid and could merge with OpenAI if the deal goes through, WSJ reported. Musk originally helped launch OpenAI with the goal of developing AI for the benefit of humanity but later left. He then founded xAI in 2023 to compete in the AI space.
OpenAI is shifting to a for-profit model, arguing that it needs significant capital to develop advanced AI. Musk’s lawsuit claims that OpenAI’s founders initially sought his funding to build a nonprofit but have since prioritized profit-making.
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