On Friday, OpenAI’s board of directors rejected a $97.4 billion bid from a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk. Bret Taylor, chairman of OpenAI’s board, said the artificial intelligence company is “not for sale.” Taylor also said that Musk’s buyout bid was his “latest attempt to disrupt his competition.”
Musk’s personal history with OpenAI
Musk helped to cofound OpenAI back in 2015, alongside now-CEO Sam Altman and a group of other tech leaders. Musk left OpenAI in 2018 and later founded his own AI company, xAI, which is what Taylor was referencing in the board’s statement. Since leaving OpenAI, Musk has had a contentious relationship with both the company in general and Sam Altman specifically. His unsolicited buyout offer, and OpenAI’s subsequent rejection, are the latest development in what many view as an ongoing feud.
Buyout bid prompted by OpenAI restructuring
Musk’s buyout offer was somewhat prompted by a change in OpenAI’s corporate structure. The artificial intelligence company has an unusual structure, where the nonprofit entity OpenAI owns two for-profit corporate entities, OpenAI GP LLC and OpenAI Global LLC.
In September 2024, OpenAI announced that it planned to restructure into a for-profit benefit corporation that would no longer be controlled by the nonprofit board. The change would also allow Altman to receive equity for the first time.
Musk took issue with getting rid of OpenAI’s nonprofit status, saying “What they’re trying to do now is completely delete the nonprofit,” at the World Government Summit in Dubai on Feb. 13. Those remarks came a day after Musk released a court filing saying that he would not pursue the buyout offer as long as OpenAI continued to keep its original structure as a nonprofit charity.
Altman claps back at Musk’s buyout offer
Altman quickly countered Musk’s offer, even before the OpenAI board formally rejected the bid. The OpenAI CEO posted on X (formerly Twitter): “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”
His post poked fun at Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter, which he later rebranded as X. The app has declined precipitously in value since Musk acquired it and, as of December 2024, was worth about 72% less than Musk paid for it. Many people drew parallels between Musk’s takeover of Twitter and his attempted takeover of OpenAI.
Musk had his own brief retort for Altman. The X owner responded to Altman’s post with a single word: “Swindler.” Altman did not respond to Musk’s post, and the OpenAI board officially declined the offer on Feb. 14, 2025.