Elon Musk offers to $97.4 billion to buy OpenAI!

Elon Musk, who has previously failed in legal attempts to influence OpenAI, is now leading a group of investors in a $97.4 billion offer to buy the business. According to the Wall Street Journal, a group of investors led by Elon Musk is aiming to buy OpenAI's nonprofit parent company. Marc Toberoff, Musk's attorney, submitted the acquisition request to OpenAI's board of directors today.

Musk's investment consortium includes his own business, xAI, Valour Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital, 8VC, and Ari Emanuel, CEO of Endeavour, a Hollywood company. If the deal is successful, Musk may combine xAI with OpenAI.

“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was. We will make sure that happens,” Musk said in a statement.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman countered the acquisition proposal by offering to buy Musk's X (formerly known as Twitter) for approximately $9.74 billion (one-tenth of Musk's proposal for OpenAI).

The board of OpenAI Nonprofit is currently made up of independent directors Bret Taylor (Chair), Adam D'Angelo, Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, Zico Kolter, retired US Army General Paul M. Nakasone, Adebayo Ogunlesi, Nicole Seligman, Fidji Simo, and Larry Summers, as well as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. While Altman has previously declared his view on Musk's takeover proposal, the OpenAI Nonprofit board has yet to comment.

CNBC reported last week that SoftBank intends to invest around $40 billion in OpenAI's capped-profit subsidiary over the next 12 to 24 months at a pre-money valuation of $260 billion and a post-money valuation of $300 billion.

In related news, OpenAI unveiled ambitions last month to construct an unprecedented scale of AI infrastructure in the United States. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son, OpenAI's Sam Altman, and Oracle's Larry Ellison launched The Stargate Project, a $500 billion investment over four years to construct new AI infrastructure in the United States.