Elon Musk bids $97.4bn to acquire control of OpenAI

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has launched a $97.4 billion bid to take over the nonprofit governing OpenAI, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The development comes months after the billionaire sued the artificial intelligence startup to block it from transitioning to a for-profit firm.

Musk's bid could ratchet up longstanding tensions between himself and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman over the future of the startup at the heart of a boom in generative AI technology.

The two are already embroiled in an ongoing lawsuit. Musk criticised a massive, $500 billion OpenAI-led project called Stargate announced with great fanfare at the White House just after President Donald Trump returned to office, suggesting the investors involved lacked the funding for the project.

Musk's attorney, Marc Toberoff, said he submitted the bid to OpenAI's board on Monday, according to the report.

"It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was," the WSJ cited Musk as saying in a statement provided by Toberoff. "We will make sure that happens."

OpenAI, Musk, Toberoff and OpenAI backer Microsoft did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

The bid is being backed by Musk's AI company xAI, which could merge with OpenAI following a deal, the WSJ reported.

Musk co-founded OpenAI with Altman in 2015, but left before the company took off. He founded the competing AI startup xAI in 2023.

OpenAI is now 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 artificial intelligence models.

Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman says the founders originally approached him to fund a nonprofit focused on developing AI to benefit humanity, but that it was now focused on making money.