Elon Musk-led group makes $97.4bn bid for ChatGPT maker OpenAI
A group of investors led by Elon Musk provided $97.4 billion to take over Chatgpt’s maker Openai.
Billionaire’s attorney Marc Toberoff confirmed that he submitted a bid for the tech company’s “all assets” to the board on Monday.
The proposal is the latest twist in a long battle between the world’s wealthiest man and right-hand Donald Trump, and opens AI CEO Sam Altman at the center of AI Boom.
In response to the bid, Altmann Posted on Musk’s social media platform x: “No, thank you, but we’ll buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
Openai is widely attributed to helping bring AI tools to the mainstream and sparking huge investments in the industry.
Musk and Altman co-founded the startup as a nonprofit in 2015, but since Tesla and Tesla and X Boss in 2018 The relationship has worsened since leaving the company.
Altman is said to be reorganizing the company into a for-profit entity, stripping it of its nonprofit board – Musk’s move believes the company has abandoned its founding mission of developing AI for the sake of humanity.
But Openai believes it needs to transition to for-profit companies to ensure the funds needed to develop the best AI model.
Musk’s AI Company XAI and several private equity firms including Baron Capital Group and Valor Management.
“It’s now Openai that once returned to open source, security-centric forces. We will make sure that this happens,” Musk said in a statement.
But Christie Pitts, a tech investor in San Francisco’s new business, expressed doubts that this is the reason behind Musk’s bid.
She told the BBC: “Considering that he himself has a competitor … it’s a for-profit company, I think it’s fair, so I think it’s not just seeing the eyes here.”
The offer is priced at $97.4 billion, well below the company’s $15.7 billion valuation in its latest funding round last October. Further funding rounds are now reportedly valued at $30 billion.
Toberoff said in a statement that the consortium will be “prepared to consider matching or exceeding” any potential higher bids.
Musk’s lawyers represent him and other investors added: “As the co-founder of OpenAI and the leader in the most innovative and successful technology industry in history, Musk is the one who best protects and develops Openai technology. ”
The creator of Chatgpt has also partnered with another American tech giant, Oracle, as well as a Japanese investment company and an UAE sovereign wealth fund to build a $500 billion artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.
New company called Stargate ProjectPresident Donald Trump announced at the White House that he called it “the largest AI infrastructure project in history” and said it would help maintain the “future of technology” in the United States.
Musk, despite being Trump’s top adviser, claimed the joint venture did not “actually have money”, although he has not provided any details or proof for the comments.
