A consortium led by billionaire Elon Musk has made a $97.4 billion bid to acquire OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, marking a significant development in the ongoing power struggle over artificial intelligence dominance. Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, confirmed the offer to OpenAI’s board on Monday, stating that it included “all assets” of the tech giant.
The move intensifies a longstanding rivalry between Musk, who is a close advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump, and OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman. The two co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as a non-profit aimed at advancing AI for the benefit of humanity, but Musk left in 2018, citing disagreements over the company’s direction. Since then, Altman has steered OpenAI towards a for-profit model, a shift that Musk argues contradicts its original mission.
In a sharp response to Musk’s bid, Altman took to X, the social media platform owned by Musk, to mockingly counter-offer: “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Despite Musk’s substantial offer, the bid is considerably lower than OpenAI’s $157 billion valuation in October 2023, with recent reports suggesting its value has surged to $300 billion amid AI’s rapid expansion. Nonetheless, Toberoff indicated that Musk’s group, which includes his AI firm xAI, Baron Capital Group, and Valor Management, is willing to “match or exceed” any competing offers.
Musk justified the takeover attempt by emphasizing OpenAI’s deviation from its open-source, safety-driven roots. “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.
Beyond this corporate tug-of-war, OpenAI is also making strategic moves of its own. The company has partnered with Oracle, a Japanese investment firm, and an Emirati sovereign wealth fund to construct $500 billion worth of AI infrastructure in the U.S. Dubbed The Stargate Project, the initiative was unveiled by President Trump at the White House, where he heralded it as “the largest AI infrastructure project by far in history.”
Musk, however, has cast doubt on the legitimacy of the project’s funding, claiming that the venture lacks the financial backing it has publicly announced. He has yet to provide evidence supporting his assertion.
As AI development accelerates, this high-stakes clash between two of tech’s most influential figures underscores the broader battle over control, ethics, and the future direction of artificial intelligence.
