In a dramatic escalation of Silicon Valley’s most heated AI rivalry, Elon Musk just announced that he’s leading a $97.4 billion bid to buy OpenAI’s nonprofit arm, according to The Wall Street Journal. The bid was reportedly delivered to the board Monday morning.
The offer brings together a powerful coalition of backers, including Musk’s own AI company xAI and venture heavyweights like Valor Equity Partners, Hollywood mogul Ari Emanuel, and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale’s venture firm 8VC.
This bid comes at a pivotal moment for OpenAI. CEO Sam Altman is already juggling multiple massive deals: converting the company to a for-profit structure, raising $40 billion at a $340 billion valuation, and launching a $500 billion AI infrastructure project. For Musk, who co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 before departing in 2019, this bid represents his boldest move yet to challenge what he sees as the company’s betrayal of its original mission to develop AI safely and openly (an allegation he’s presently suing OpenAI for).
“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk said in a statement provided by his lawyer Marc Toberoff to The Wall Street Journal. “We will make sure that happens.”
The bid also adds a significant layer of complexity to OpenAI’s planned for-profit conversion, as Musk’s team has promised to match or exceed any higher offers. This creates a thorny situation for Altman, who’s already navigating negotiations with Microsoft and other stakeholders over equity in the planned for-profit structure.
Shortly after the news was announced, Altman posted on X: “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
OpenAI pointed to Altman’s post when asked for comment. Toberoff did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
