Isn’t he busy enough already? Yesterday, it was reported that Elon Musk leads a bid to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion. Does he really want it?

The story was reported by both The New York Times (Elon Musk Leads Bid to Buy Assets of OpenAI for $97.4 Billion, written by Mike Isaac and Cade Metz and available here) and The Wall Street Journal (Elon Musk-Led Group Makes $97.4 Billion Bid for Control of OpenAI, written by Jessica Toonkel and Berber Jin and available here).

As reported by WSJ, a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk is offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, upping the stakes in his battle with Sam Altman over the company behind ChatGPT.

Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, said he submitted a bid for all the nonprofit’s assets to OpenAI’s board of directors Monday.

The unsolicited offer adds a major complication to Altman’s carefully laid plans for OpenAI’s future, including converting it to a for-profit company and spending up to $500 billion on AI infrastructure through a joint venture called Stargate. He and Musk are already fighting in court over the direction of OpenAI.

“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 Toberoff. “We will make sure that happens.”

Altman responded to Musk on X, writing, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” using the previous name for the Musk-owned social-media platform and moving the decimal point in the billionaire’s bid for OpenAI one space to the left.

Altman and Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as a charity. In 2019, after Musk left the company and Altman became chief executive, OpenAI created a for-profit subsidiary that has served as a vehicle for it to raise money from Microsoft and other investors. Altman is in the process of turning the subsidiary into a traditional company and spinning out the nonprofit, which would own equity in the new for-profit. 

One of the thorniest questions in the conversion has been how the nonprofit will be valued. Musk’s bid sets a high bar and may mean that he, or whoever runs the nonprofit, would end up with a large and possibly controlling stake in the new OpenAI.

The bid is being backed by Musk’s own artificial intelligence company xAI, which could merge with OpenAI following a deal and he also has several investors backing him.

Musk has filed a series of legal complaints accusing OpenAI of betraying its original nonprofit mission by creating a for-profit arm and colluding with its largest investor, Microsoft, to dominate the development of AI. He also previously asked the court to block OpenAI from converting to a for-profit.

Hat tip to Gregory Bufithis for the heads up on this story!

So, is this a legitimate offer or the latest effort by Musk to derail OpenAI’s plans? We’ll see. In the meantime, the OpenAI soap opera is back on the air – with recurring special guest star Elon Musk!

So, what do you think? Elon Musk leads a bid to buy OpenAI – what’s next? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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