A group of investors led by Elon Musk plans to buy OpenAI. Its CEO Sam Altman reacts with mockery.
A group of investors led by Tesla CEO Elon Musk wants to buy the non-profit organization behind OpenAI for $97.4 billion. The Wall Street Journal first reported the offer, citing anonymous sources. OpenAI is best known for the chatbot ChatGPT.
Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff responded shortly thereafter to CNBC: The offer was made on Monday and it is time for OpenAI to become the open-source and security-focused force for good that it once was. The offer is intended to acquire all of the organization’s assets and use them exclusively for the original charitable mission of OpenAI, Inc.
In addition, the group of investors wants to match future offers from other interested parties.
‘☻
no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want
— Sam Altman (@sama) February 10, 2025
Musk, Altman, OpenAI: A trio with a past
The two billionaires Musk and Altman have a shared history with OpenAI: in 2015, they were both among the founding members of the organization, which at the time was primarily funded by donations. Its for-profit subsidiary of the same name was not founded until 2019.
When it was founded, the organization’s goal was to make AI research available under open source guidelines for the benefit of the general public.
In 2018, Musk left OpenAI – officially to avoid conflicts of interest with Tesla’s AI developments. Since 2023, however, he has repeatedly criticized OpenAI and Altman publicly, describing ChatGPT as highly unethical and illegal.
In March 2024, Musk even filed a lawsuit, accusing the organization of breaching the contract by founding the for-profit company.
A tactical offer?
Elon Musk has been the subject of headline after headline, especially since Donald Trump took office three weeks ago.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which he heads, is currently taking over US agencies such as the Treasury and the Centers for Disease Control, crippling them with austerity measures. He is actively interfering in the German election campaign, making rude comments on X and causing a stir with a gesture commonly interpreted as a Nazi salute.
The amount of messages has a method – and even a name: Flood the Zone
; a strategy in which you sign resolutions, make statements and cross borders at such a high speed and in such an inscrutable manner that your political opponents, but also the media, courts and individuals, cannot keep up.
Whether the OpenAI offer is also part of the strategy cannot yet be said definitively.
The fact that Musk’s offer to Altman, who is not friendly towards him, does not even cover two-thirds of OpenAI’s current valuation of $157 billion suggests that it is more of a political game than a serious takeover bid.
