Elon Musk didn’t have $43 billion to buy Twitter back in 2022, but he ended up sealing the deal—with a little help from deep-pocketed friends and corporate allies. Now he wants to spend more than twice that amount to take over OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company he co-founded and later abandoned.
A consortium of investors led by Musk offered $97.4 billion to acquire the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, submitted the bid to OpenAI’s board of directors on Monday, the Journal reported.
The move, legit or bluff, appears to be a counterattack to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s carefully orchestrated plans to convert his nonprofit company into a for-profit firm. The organization already pledged to complete this transition by late 2026 as part of a $6.6 billion funding round that valued it at $157 billion last October.
“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 his attorney to the Journal. OpenAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“No thank you, but we will purchase Twitter for $9.74 billion if you’re interested, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted shortly after the story was published.
no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want
— Sam Altman (@sama) February 10, 2025
The bid was backed by Musk’s AI company xAI and several high-profile investors including Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital and 8VC—a venture firm led by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale. Ari Emanuel, CEO of entertainment company Endeavor, also joined through his investment fund.
Musk and Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015 as a nonprofit. After Musk’s departure in 2019, Altman became CEO and created a for-profit subsidiary to raise money from Microsoft and other investors. The organization is now seeking to convert that subsidiary into a traditional company, while spinning out the nonprofit portion.
The idea, if Elon succeeds, would be to merge xAI with OpenAI after the acquisition.
OpenAI’s plan to become a for-profit business has been met with fierce opposition. Not only Musk has taken matters into his own hands with several lawsuits, but Meta has also opposed the conversion plan, and negotiations continue with Microsoft over equity stakes.
Toberoff said Musk’s group would match any higher bids. “If Sam Altman and the present OpenAI Inc. Board of Directors are intent on becoming a fully for-profit corporation, it is vital that the charity be fairly compensated for what its leadership is taking away from it: control over the most transformative technology of our time,” he stated.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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