Elon Musk reportedly offers $97.4B for OpenAI. Sam Altman says 'no thank you'
Daniel Howley and Alexis Keenan
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman shot down an unsolicited offer by a group of investors led by Elon Musk on Monday to purchase the nonprofit that heads up OpenAI for $97.4 billion.
Altman posted his response to Musk, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The offer is a significant reduction in OpenAI's valuation. According to CNBC, SoftBank plans to invest $20 billion in OpenAI at a valuation of $240 billion.
"No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want," Altman wrote on X in an apparent response to the offer.
Musk responded minutes later, calling Altman a "swindler." Musk owns X, which he purchased for $44 billion when it was known as Twitter in 2022.
Musk and Altman originally co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit company, but Musk separated himself from the AI firm over disagreements with how to move forward with the venture.
Altman and OpenAI have since teamed up with Microsoft (MSFT), which invested billions in the company, gaining access to its AI models while serving as its cloud computing provider.
Altman is currently seeking to turn OpenAI into a for-profit business, which Musk is suing to prevent. The case centers around Musk's initial $45 million in funding for the company, which he claims was contingent on OpenAI serving as a non-profit business.
Corporate law experts say that OpenAI is required, by law, to receive fair market value for its assets. Musk's lawyer in January asked California's attorney general to ensure fair market value is paid, claiming that OpenAI and Microsoft have incentive to devalue the assets.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - OCTOBER 06: (L-R) Tesla Motors CEO and Product Architect Elon Musk and Y Combinator President Sam Altman speak onstage during
Elon Musk and Sam Altman speak onstage at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on October 6, 2015 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair) · Michael Kovac via Getty Images
Musk's $97.4 billion offer for the non-profit, if genuine, could establish that at least one group of buyers believes the assets to be worth at least that much. However, legal experts say the unpredictable factors around the OpenAI’s future growth, outsized debt, unusual business structure, and pending litigation, could heavily skew that valuation.
Musk also operates xAI, an OpenAI rival.
This isn't the first time the duo has sparred in public. Musk previously claimed in a post on X that OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle, which joined forces to build data centers across the U.S. as part of their so-called Stargate Project, didn't have the money up to $500 billion the companies said they would spend.
Altman responded saying that Musk was wrong and invited him to a facility that's currently under construction in Texas.
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