Musk-led investor group mulls buying OpenAI for US$97.4bn

A group of investors led by Elon Musk has made a US$97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI after the owner of X sued the artificial intelligence firm.  

Musk co-founded OpenAI with its current chief executive Sam Altman in 2015, however, Musk departed before the company took off and released ChatGPT in late 2022. 

Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, told multiple media such as BBC that he handed in the bid for "all assets" of the tech company to its board earlier on Monday. Toberoff said the group would be "prepared to consider matching or exceeding" any potential higher bid. 

"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," he added. 

MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to Toberoff for a statement. 

The deal is the latest move in a longstanding battle between Musk and Altman over the future of the AI start-up with the disruption of the new technology. Last August, Musk has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its co-founders, Altman and Greg Brockman, alleging that the company has strayed from its original mission of serving the public good in favour of profit-seeking. The lawsuit, submitted to a federal court in Northern California, describes Musk’s case as a "textbook tale of altruism versus greed."

In the latest response to the bid, Altman said on X: "no thank you but we will buy twitter for US$9.74 billion if you want."  

Emerging reports suggested that Altman planned to reorganise OpenAI as a for-profit entity, removing its non-profit board, to secure the money required for developing the best AI models.   

However, Musk described the move as being strayed from its original mission of advancing AI for the benefit of humanity. "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 said in a statement. 

Musk's AI company, xAI, along with several private equity firms such as Baron Capital Group and Valor Management, is supporting the takeover bid for OpenAI. 

The creator of ChatGPT is also collaborating with another major US tech company, Oracle, as well as a Japanese investment firm and an Emirati sovereign wealth fund to develop US$500 billion worth of AI infrastructure in the US. 

Don't miss: Elon Musk dismisses interest in acquiring TikTok

Most recently, Musk has ruled out any interest in acquiring TikTok, despite recent speculation surrounding the future of the short-video platform in the US. Speaking at a summit hosted by Germany's WELT Group in late January, the Tesla and SpaceX chief executive addressed claims that he might bid for the platform.

"I have not put in a bid for TikTok," Musk stated. His remarks surfaced online over the weekend, following US President Donald Trump's suggestion that he would be open to Musk purchasing the ByteDance-owned app.

Musk emphasised that he has no plans for the platform, noting that he does not personally use TikTok and is unfamiliar with its format. "I'm not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok. I do not acquire companies in general - it's quite rare," he said, citing his US$44 billion takeover of Twitter, now rebranded as X, as an unusual exception. "I usually build companies from scratch."

Related articles:

Elon Musk claps back at Wall Street Journal for alleged drug use article
Tesla investors asking to suspend Elon Musk for social media comment on antisemitic post