Elon Musk makes a bid to control OpenAI for $97.4 billion

BarcelonaA consortium of investors led by Elon Musk has offered $97.4 billion to buy the non-profit organization that controls the artificial intelligence company OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, the American newspaper reported on Monday. The Wall Street Journal.

The offer could escalate tensions between Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who have long been at odds over the future of the company. start-up. Musk's lawyer, Marc Toberoff, said the group of investors has already submitted its bid to OpenAI's board, according to the newspaper. "It's time for OpenAI to return to being the open source, security-focused force it once was," Musk said in a statement provided by the lawyer, adding: "We will make sure that happens."

Altman was quick to respond to the offer, and he did so through X, the social network owned by Musk. The CEO of OpenAI has rejected the purchase offer outright and, while waiting for the rest of the board of directors to make a statement, he has responded to the founder of Tesla in a sarcastic tone: "No, thank you, we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion, if you want."

From partners to enemies

The billionaire and adviser to US President Donald Trump co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015, but left the company in 2019, before its meteoric success. In fact, Musk has repeatedly criticised his former partner for wanting to turn the ChatGPT company into a for-profit project and has even sued him to prevent it. In 2023, the billionaire also created xAI to compete with them and now he would like both companies to merge after reaching an agreement for control of OpenAI.

Altman's argument for ceasing to be a non-profit project is that it is a key transition to secure the capital that OpenAI needs to develop better artificial intelligence models. The company is also one of the firms participating in the government's $500 billion Stargate AI infrastructure development project, announced by US President Donald Trump.