Elon Musk-led investors offer $97.4 billion for nonprofit controlling OpenAI

A group of investors led by Elon Musk has offered $97.4 billion to acquire the nonprofit controlling OpenAI. 

The initial report about the Musk-led investors’ initiative was reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Key Details:

• Musk attorney Marc Toberoff submitted the unsolicited offer for all of the nonprofit’s assets to OpenAI’s board on Monday.
• The bid is backed by Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, as well as other investors such as Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital, and 8VC. Ari Emanuel of Endeavor is also backing the offer through an investment fund, the WSJ noted.
• “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,” Musk noted in a statement provided by Toberoff.
• Toberoff also noted that Musk and his fellow investors are ready to match or exceed any bids that challenge their $97.4 billion offer.
• “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,” he noted.

Swindler

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 10, 2025

OpenAI’s Response:

• As per a report from The Information, OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman reportedly informed told OpenAI staff that the company’s board of directors is not interested in Musk’s bid.
• In a post on X, Altman also responded to Musk and the other investors’ offer. “No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” Altman wrote in a post on X.
• Altman’s post received a reply from Musk, who wrote “Swindler.”
• Altman is steering OpenAI towards becoming a traditional company, a process that includes spinning out the company’s nonprofit. OpenAI’s nonprofit would own equity in the new for-profit.
• As noted by WSJ, Musk and the other investors’ $97.4 billion could result in the nonprofit ending up with a large and possibly controlling stake in the for-profit OpenAI.

Background and Conflict:

• OpenAI was founded by Musk, Altman, and several other notable AI players in 2015 as a nonprofit. Musk ultimately left in 2019.
• Under Altman’s leadership, OpenAI has created a for-profit subsidiary, which received backing from companies like Microsoft.
• Musk has filed lawsuits against OpenAI, alleging it abandoned its nonprofit mission. 
• He has also urged California and Delaware authorities to ensure a fair valuation of OpenAI’s nonprofit’s assets.

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