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Elon Musk has just fired a fresh volley against one of the biggest names in the ever-evolving world of artificial intelligence, OpenAI. In doing so, Musk risks further riling up Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, exacerbating the prevailing animus between the two.
To wit, the Wall Street Journal is now reporting that Elon Musk has submitted an unsolicited buyout offer to OpenAI via a consortium of investors.
Specifically, Elon Musk is offering $97.4 billion to buy the non-profit that controls OpenAI. Bear in mind that the AI-focused enterprise is now changing its corporate structure to a public benefit corporation (PBC). Essentially, the company's core AI-related functions will soon be controlled by its for-profit arm, with the non-profit arm continuing to retain an ownership interest in the for-profit entity.
Of course, this development is merely the latest in a long litany of one-upmanship between Elon Musk and Sam Altman. In late 2024, the CEO of Tesla and xAI filed a lawsuit against OpenAI for its planned transition to a PBC, going so far as to plead for a preliminary injunction in December 2024, arguing that the planned change was against OpenAI's ethos of working for the betterment of the entire human race.
In response, Sam Altman termed Elon Musk a "bully" who "likes to get into fights." According to an open letter that the company published on the 13th of December, 2024, Elon Musk had himself proposed a for-profit structure for OpenAI back in 2017 in his capacity as the co-founder of the non-profit. The letter went on to note:
"When he didn’t get majority equity and full control, he walked away [in 2018] and told us we would fail."
Coming back, a war of words has now erupted between Elon Musk and Sam Altman.
Elon Musk responds to Sam Altman 🍿 https://t.co/QEbhWA2zZG pic.twitter.com/JK4d8o6sJz
— Wall St Engine (@wallstengine) February 10, 2025
In response to Musk's buyout offer, Altman responded with a terse statement:
"No thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want."
Musk answered with a single word: "swindler."
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
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