An investor consortium led by the tech entrepreneur Elon Musk is preparing a historic offer amounting to $97.4 billion for the assets of the nonprofit managing OpenAI.
This has raised the stakes in the long-standing and intensely personal contest between Musk and OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman. The battle is to see who gets to set the agenda for artificial intelligence.
According to sources, Histories of Vy Capital and Xai-Musk’s AI start-up-now is joined by Hollywood titan Ari Emanuel and other financiers. The offer has been first disclosed by the Wall Street Journal.
This offer is Musk’s latest and potentially loudest aggression against an organization he co-founded almost ten years ago. His chances of success are slim, however, as OpenAI’s board largely supports Altman, who wasted no time in shooting down Musk’s offer.
Altman on X, referring to Musk’s previous social media company stated, “No thank you, but we’d be willing to buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you’re interested.” The answer from Musk was, “Swindler.”
According to a source familiar with the organization’s potential response, OpenAI has not made a formal review or response to the offer. The unsolicited offer by Musk could hopefully derail OpenAI’s efforts to get a $40 billion raise. The raise would have nearly doubled the valuation of the company four months ago.
According to reports from sources who requested anonymity, the latest round of funding is being led by SoftBank in Japan. If it goes through, the company will be valued at around $300 billion.
If the deal is achieved, it will make OpenAI one of the highest-valued private companies in the world along with Musk’s SpaceX and ByteDance which is the owner of TikTok.
SoftBank has set aside a maximum investment of $40 billion for OpenAI, while other investors are expected to chip in with around a quarter of the entire amount.
Business Journalist
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