Musk-led group offers $97.4bn for OpenAI; Altman gives counter-offer

A group of investors led by Elon Musk has offered to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI for nearly $100 billion, marking an escalation in the old clash between the Tesla chief and the artificial intelligence company he co-founded. With the unsolicited bid of $97.4 billion, Musk said he hopes to return OpenAI to being “the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was.”

Tesla founder Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. (AFP file)

However, Musk may have a long way to go before he can control OpenAI, at least if company chief Sam Altman has a say in the matter.

Sam Altman mocked Elon Musk’s offer on the social media platform owned by Musk. “No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want,” he wrote, taking a jibe at Musk’s takeover of Twitter for $44 billion in 2022 and the company’s since-reduced valuation.