Billionaire Elon Musk's Unexpected Move with OpenAI

Billionaire Elon Musk, the co-founder of OpenAI who left, not only sued the company but also offered to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion.

The new development was revealed in a court filing on February 13, in which Musk's lawyers said he would withdraw the "huge" offer if OpenAI maintained its non-profit status and "removed the 'for sale' sign" from its property.

If OpenAI moves forward with its plan to transition to a for-profit model, Musk is asking that the charity initially be “fairly compensated” by an amount that “an independent buyer” would be willing to pay. The filing stresses that Musk’s offer is “serious” and aimed at “advancing the charitable mission” of the organization.

The move comes just days after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Reuters that the nonprofit that controls OpenAI is “not for sale.”

According to Reuters, on February 12, OpenAI sent a letter to the federal court, in which OpenAI emphasized that Mr. Musk had contradicted himself by making an "unreasonable proposal to sabotage a competitor." The company argued that while Mr. Musk insisted that OpenAI's assets should belong to a charitable organization and not be used for personal gain, his acquisition proposal sought to transfer all of these assets into the hands of himself and private investors.

Previously, in August 2024, Musk filed a lawsuit against Mr. Altman and others, asking the court to prevent OpenAI from transitioning to a for-profit model.

Billionaire Elon Musk co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman in 2015 as a non-profit organization. However, he left before ChatGPT became popular in late 2022. In 2023, Musk founded xAI, an AI company that directly competes with OpenAI.

For its part, OpenAI says it needs to transition to a for-profit model to attract the capital needed to develop cutting-edge AI models.