A consortium of investors led by Elon Musk, which includes Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel through his personal investment fund, has offered a reported $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, a surprise twist on Musk’s raging battle with OpenAI chief Sam Altman.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, said that Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, submitted the unsolicited bid to OpenAI’s board of directors today. “It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk said in a statement provided to the WSJ by Toberoff. “We will make sure that happens.”
In a response on X this afternoon with a bit of a dig, Altman wrote, “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” Musk acquired the platform he renamed X for $44 billion in 2022.
Musk was a co-founder with Altman of OpenAI in 2015 initially as a charitable enterprise. He left before the company took off and subsequently launched his own AI venture, xAI. He has sued Altman — who created a for-profit subsidiary to raise cash (Microsoft invested) and is planning to spin that out — for betraying OpenAI’s charitable roots.
It’s not been clear how the nonprofit will be valued in a spinoff but Musk’s offer sets out a number. His xAI is backing the deal with a consortium including Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital, 8VC, a venture firm led by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale and Emanuel, according to the WSJ. Deadline has confirmed that the chief of Endeavor and TKO is is participating.
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