OpenAI Swiftly Rebuffs Musk's Surprise $97.4 Billion Buyout Attempt

Elon Musk on Monday led a consortium of investors in making a $97.4 billion unsolicited offer to acquire ChatGPT maker OpenAI's nonprofit arm – only to face immediate rejection from CEO Sam Altman.

open ai new typeface
The Wall Street Journal reports that the bid included backing from Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI and prominent investors like Valor Equity Partners and Baron Capital. Musk co-founded OpenAI as a charity with Altman in 2015.

"It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was," Musk said in a statement through his lawyer Marc Toberoff. The consortium pledged to match or exceed any competing offers.

Altman quickly dismissed the proposal on X (formerly Twitter) with a pointed response: "No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want" – an apparent jab at Musk's $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in 2022.

Musk responded to the post with a one-word reply: "Swindler."

The attempted takeover comes amid OpenAI's ongoing transition from a nonprofit to a for-profit structure, with the company recently valued at $157 billion. The transformation has been contentious between Musk and his former colleagues. There have been multiple lawsuits where Musk has accused OpenAI of betraying its founding principles.

In a message to employees reported by WSJ, Altman reassured staff that OpenAI's structure prevents any individual from taking control of the company, describing Musk's offer as "tactics to try and weaken us because we are making great progress."

The bid's investor group included other backers such as Atreides Management, Vy Capital, and 8VC, a venture firm led by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, along with Hollywood executive Ari Emanuel's investment fund.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: OpenAI

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Five Features Coming to AirPods Pro 3

Friday June 27, 2025 10:52 am PDT by
Apple hasn't updated the AirPods Pro since 2022, and the earbuds are due for a refresh. We're counting on a new model this year, and we've seen several hints of new AirPods tucked away in Apple's code. Rumors suggest that Apple has some exciting new features planned that will make it worthwhile to upgrade to the latest model. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Heal...
Chase Sapphire Reserve Apple Perk Feature

Chase Sapphire Reserve Card Introduces New Perk for Apple Customers

Wednesday June 25, 2025 2:08 pm PDT by
Chase this week announced a series of new perks for its premium Sapphire Reserve credit card, and one of them is for a pair of Apple services. Specifically, the credit card now offers complimentary annual subscriptions to Apple TV+ and Apple Music, a value of up to $250 per year. If you are already paying for Apple TV+ and/or Apple Music directly through Apple, those subscriptions will...
anker power bank recall

PSA: Anker Recalls Multiple Power Banks Due to Fire Risk

Friday June 27, 2025 4:16 pm PDT by
Popular accessory maker Anker this month launched two separate recalls for its power banks, some of which may be a fire risk. The first recall affects Anker PowerCore 10000 Power Banks sold between June 1, 2016 and December 31, 2022 in the United States. Anker says that these power banks have a "potential issue" with the battery inside, which can lead to overheating, melting of plastic...
iPhone Car Key WWDC 2025

Apple Announces 13 Automakers Planning to Offer iPhone Car Keys

Friday June 27, 2025 11:42 am PDT by
In 2020, Apple added a digital car key feature to its Wallet app, allowing users to lock, unlock, and start a compatible vehicle with an iPhone or Apple Watch. The feature is currently offered by select automakers, including Audi, BMW, Hyundai, Kia, Genesis, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and a handful of others, and it is set to expand further. During its WWDC 2025 keynote, Apple said that 13...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in a Few Months With These 12 New Features

Thursday June 26, 2025 2:00 am PDT by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are around three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max in September this year. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an...
CarPlay Ultra Climate Controls

Here's Which Vehicle Brands Will and Won't Offer Apple's CarPlay Ultra

Friday June 27, 2025 9:52 am PDT by
Apple last month announced the launch of CarPlay Ultra, the long-awaited next-generation version of its CarPlay software system for vehicles. There was news this week about which automakers will and won't offer CarPlay Ultra, and we have provided an updated list below. CarPlay Ultra is currently limited to newer Aston Martin vehicles in the U.S. and Canada. Fortunately, if you cannot...
apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Tuesday June 24, 2025 3:40 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
macbook air spacegray purple

Apple Planning to Launch Low-Cost MacBook Powered By iPhone Chip

Monday June 30, 2025 3:20 am PDT by
Apple is planning to launch a low-cost MacBook powered by an iPhone chip, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In an article published on X, Kuo explained that the device will feature a 13-inch display and the A18 Pro chip, making it the first Mac powered by an iPhone chip. The A18 Pro chip debuted in the iPhone 16 Pro last year. To date, all Apple silicon Macs have contained M-series...

Top Rated Comments

ItsASpider Avatar
20 weeks ago

Musk is salty because AI turned out to be a bigger and more world changing innovation than anything he's done, as cool as his rockets are and as great as Tesla was at popularising EVs. Sam Altman is going to get more pages in the history books than Musk.
What probably more contributed to it is that this is a company that very specifically *didn't* want Musk to have control over it, and has become a success despite (or mayhaps more likely; because of) kicking him out.

Musk has a serious ego problem. I don't know who said it first, but it can all be summed up to this: "He knows the world needs saving, but he'll burn it to the ground if it isn't him who saves it."
Score: 45 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CraigJDuffy Avatar
20 weeks ago

I doubt it. What they currently call AI is not bigger than rockets to Mars.
Which rocket has taken humans to Mars?
Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SW3029 Avatar
20 weeks ago

Remember that everything that Altman has was started by Musk. And Musk has proven to have more morals, more rockets, more electric cars, and well, just more of everything than Altman.
lol. more morals?
Score: 33 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SoldOnApple Avatar
20 weeks ago
Musk is salty because AI turned out to be a bigger and more world changing innovation than anything he's done, as cool as his rockets are and as great as Tesla was at popularising EVs. Sam Altman is going to get more pages in the history books than Musk.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ArPe Avatar
20 weeks ago

Musk is salty
He’s a troll and chaos agent who is funded by dictatorships who pump up his stock to bribe him. Same thing Trump does with all his listed companies, properties, gold sneakers and meme coins. It’s all bribery.

The enemy has taken over and is gutting your government. The next phase is to turn a blind eye to terrorism around the world so that private armies and private construction companies can get fat contracts. They will not be your friends. They will blow up neighborhoods all over the place using false excuses.
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DavidLeblond Avatar
20 weeks ago

Musk is salty because AI turned out to be a bigger and more world changing innovation than anything he's done, as cool as his rockets are and as great as Tesla was at popularising EVs. Sam Altman is going to get more pages in the history books than Musk.
(looks at the news) No, pretty sure what he's doing right now is going to get him quite a few chapters in the history books. Unfortunately.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)