‘No Thank You’, Says Sam Altman to Elon Musk on Offering $97.4 Billion to Buy OpenAI

According to the Wall Street Journal report, Elon Musk and his group of investors made a $97.4 billion bid to purchase OpenAI. Musk sued OpenAI multiple times in 2024. Elon Musk was one of the co-founders of OpenAI in 2015, and he invested at least $45 million in the company. However, he left after a power struggle between Elon Musk and Sam Altman.

In a new turn of events, the Wall Street Journal reported that X owner Elon Musk made a bid of $97.4 billion in order to acquire the non-profit that controls OpenAI. The OpenAI, in its blog post, made clear how the company is a For-Profit and the post reads, “A new for-profit subsidiary would be formed, capable of issuing equity to raise capital and hire world-class Twitter talent, but still at the direction of the Nonprofit. Employees working on for-profit initiatives were transitioned over to the new subsidiary.”

no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want

— Sam Altman (@sama) February 10, 2025

The board members and Elon Musk made an official proposal to OpenAI in order to take control of the company. The proposal was made to return the company to its original non-profit structure. Musk’s lawyer states, “If Sam Altman and the current board want OpenAI to become a fully for-profit company, it’s important that the charity is fairly compensated for losing control of such groundbreaking technology.”

However, Altman responded by rejecting the offer, and he posted it on X, which reads, “No thanks, but we’d be willing to buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you’re interested.”

Musk proposed the offer two times in 2024. To recall, Musk accused OpenAI of diverging from its core principle and is now focusing more on commercialized philosophy. Musk wants to control the OpenAI and return it to its original no-profit research lab however, in order to do that, the Tesla owner has to take control of the OpenAI.