In an ongoing feud between two tech titans, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that a group led by xAI CEO Elon Musk has made an unsolicited bid of $97.4 billion for a controlling stake in OpenAI, a direct competitor. This offer arrives just months after Musk initiated legal action against OpenAI over its shift to a for-profit model.
Musk expressed his intentions through his lawyer, Marc Toberoff, stating, “It’s time for OpenAI to return to its roots as an open-source, safety-focused entity that benefits society. We will ensure that happens.”
The Wall Street Journal indicates that this proposal is supported by xAI, which may lead to a merger with OpenAI if the deal is finalized. Although the board of OpenAI has not reached a decision on the offer, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, has publicly dismissed Musk’s advances, humorously suggesting the purchase of Twitter (now officially known as X “The Everything App”) for the same amount instead.
No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.
— Sam Altman (@sama) February 10, 2025
The rivalry between Musk and Altman spans several years. The duo co-founded OpenAI in 2015, but Musk resigned from the board in 2018 after his demands for substantial control and leadership were rejected. He later founded xAI in 2023, known for the Grok chatbot, and has consistently targeted both OpenAI and Altman since then.
In March 2023, several months before launching xAI, Musk co-signed an open letter urging AI labs to pause the development of systems more powerful than GPT-4 for six months. Notably, xAI was publicly launched almost exactly six months later.
Later that year, after Altman’s brief removal from OpenAI’s leadership, Musk shared an anonymous letter accusing Altman of unethical practices, with sources traced back to an unverified online message board.
In 2024, Musk initiated multiple lawsuits against OpenAI. In March, he targeted Altman and the company’s President, Greg Brockman, claiming they violated the founding principles in their pursuit of profit, but he withdrew the lawsuit just before a ruling was to be made. He reinstated the lawsuit in August, alleging that OpenAI’s shift from a nonprofit to a multibillion-dollar for-profit entity was a betrayal of its original mission.
The lawsuit expanded in November to include Microsoft as a defendant, with Musk naming Shivon Zilis, the mother of three of his children, as a co-plaintiff. OpenAI responded with a statement revealing Musk’s initial support for the for-profit transition, backing it up with email documentation. The court has yet to make a ruling, and with the ongoing hostilities between Musk and Altman extending over six years, it seems unlikely that this latest development will be their final confrontation.
