BREAKING: Elon Musk-led investors offer $97.4 BILLION to control OpenAI

The unsolicited offer could disrupt CEO Sam Altman’s ongoing efforts to transition OpenAI into a for-profit entity and push forward his ambitious $500 billion investment in AI infrastructure under the "Stargate" joint venture, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Musk, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but departed in 2019, framed the bid as an effort to restore the company’s original mission. “It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk stated through Toberoff. “We will make sure that happens.”

In March of 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the defendants of breaching their contract and engaging in unfair business practices. He called on them to make good on their original commitment to keep things open source, and requested an injunction to prevent OpenAI and Microsoft from profiting off the innovations. The company set out originally to a non-profit enterprise.

"OpenAI, Inc. has been transformed into a closed-source de facto subsidiary of the largest technology company in the world: Microsoft," Musk lamented in the suit, which was filed in San Francisco Superior Court. "Under its new board, it is not just developing but is actually refining an AGI to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity."

Musk explained that at OpenAI's founding in 2015, it was agreed upon that it would "serve as a vital counterbalance to, Google/DeepMind in the race for AGI, but would do so to benefit humanity, not the shareholders of a private, for-profit company."

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