Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI – the maker of ChatGPT – has rejected Elon Musk bid to take over the firm after a consortium led by the Tesla owner offered $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI.
Musk cofounded OpenAI with Altman in 2015 as a nonprofit, but left before the company took off. He founded the competing AI startup xAI in 2023.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla (TSLA.O) and owner of tech and social media company X, is a close ally of President Donald Trump.
It should be noted that OpenAI is trying to transition into a for-profit from a nonprofit entity, which it says is required to secure the capital needed for developing the best AI models.
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In response to the bid, Altman posted on Musk’s social media platform X: “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want”.
His rejection of the bid does not necessarily mean the proposed take over is dead.
The offer tabled at $97.4bn is much lower than the $157bn the company was valued at in its latest funding round in October last year. Talks over a further funding round reportedly value it now at $300bn.
