Elon Musk offers to buy out Open AI for $97,4 billion

He believes the company should return to open-source AI research rather than prioritizing commercial gain

11.02.2025 - 10:20

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2 min

What’s new? Billionaire Elon Musk and a group of investors have offered to buy the non-profit organization overseeing OpenAI for $97,4 billion but were rebuffed by the organization’s CEO Sam Altman. The consortium includes Elon Musk, his AI startup xAI, and longtime investors in his other projects, including Baron Capital Group, Valor, Atreides, Vy Capital, Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC, and an investment fund led by Ari Emanuel, CEO of Endeavor.

Material by WSJ

Tesla’s CEO intends to restore OpenAI to its former reputation as “the open-source, safety-focused force for good.” According to the source, xAI expects to merge with OpenAI if the deal is successful.

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What else is known? Musk co-founded OpenAI but left the company in 2018 due to disagreements over its leadership and ambitions. Originally founded as a non-profit organization focused on AI security, OpenAI later shifted to a for-profit model to secure funding, with Microsoft becoming its largest investor.

Musk has long criticized the shift, arguing that OpenAI is moving away from its original mission. He even filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Altman, accusing them of violating the firm’s founding principles. According to Musk, OpenAI should return to open-source AI research rather than prioritizing commercial gain.

His latest attempt to buy out OpenAI was seen as an aggressive move to stop the company from becoming a commercial AI giant. Musk had already filed a lawsuit in August 2024, stating that the company’s founders, Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, had violated the underlying agreement for the sake of commercial gains.

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