A group of investors, with Elon Musk at the forefront, proposed a $97.4 billion acquisition of OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT.
Elon Musk’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, announced that they had officially placed an offer for the entirety of the tech company’s assets to its board on Monday.
This move marks a significant chapter in the ongoing rivalry between Musk, currently the wealthiest individual globally and an advisor to US President Donald Trump, and Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, regarding the future of the startup pivotal in the AI industry.
Altman reacted to the proposal by tweeting on Musk’s platform X, stating, “no thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
OpenAI has played a crucial role in advancing artificial intelligence technologies into widespread use and triggering substantial investments in this area.
Musk and Altman initially established the startup as a nonprofit organization in 2015. However, their relationship deteriorated after Musk, who also leads Tesla and X, left the company in 2018.
Altman reportedly plans to reorganize OpenAI into a profit-making enterprise, removing its nonprofit status, a decision Musk contends deviates from the organization’s original altruistic mission.
However, OpenAI maintains that becoming a for-profit organization is necessary to generate the funds needed for developing superior AI models.
Musk’s AI venture, xAI, along with various private equity firms including Baron Capital Group and Valor Management, supports the takeover bid.
Musk expressed in a statement, “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.”
Despite the current offer of $97.4 billion, this figure falls short of the $157 billion valuation from its most recent financing round in October of the previous year, with ongoing discussions now placing its worth at about $300 billion.
Mr. Toberoff indicated that the bidding consortium is willing to match or surpass any higher offers that might come.
Musk’s attorney also stated, “As the co-founder of OpenAI and the most innovative and successful tech industry leader in history, Musk is the person best positioned to protect and grow OpenAI’s technology.”
Furthermore, the developers of ChatGPT are collaborating with US tech giant Oracle, a Japanese investment firm, and an Emirati sovereign wealth fund to develop a $500 billion AI infrastructure in the US.
This new venture, dubbed “The Stargate Project,” was unveiled at the White House by President Donald Trump, who described it as “the largest AI infrastructure project by far in history” and a critical step in maintaining the technological future within the US.
Despite Musk’s significant role as an advisor to Trump, he has voiced skepticism about the project’s financial backing, though he has yet to provide concrete evidence or details.
Global leaders are gearing up for a showdown over AI supremacy at an upcoming summit in Paris.
