OpenAI Rejects Elon Musk's $97.4 Billion Acquisition Offer

“OpenAI is not for sale, and the board unanimously rejected Mr. Musk’s latest attempt to disrupt his competitors,” OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor said in a statement posted to X.

The rejection of the takeover bid is the latest development in a long-running dispute between OpenAI and Musk over the planned restructuring of the ChatGPT maker.

Musk, a co-founder of the company with current CEO Sam Altman, originally founded it as a nonprofit research lab with a for-profit entity, but now aims to restructure in a way that drives profit and increases revenue.

Musk has criticized the plan as an abdication of OpenAI’s nonprofit mission, and the billionaire has since led a coalition of investors to buy the company to turn it back into an open-source, safety-focused force in AI.

The offer could have been a major shakeup in the AI ​​industry, with Musk, owner of OpenAI’s rival XAI, gaining greater control over the technology.

But OpenAI quickly unceremoniously rejected the offer, with Altman posting on X the same day, “No thanks, but we’ll buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” 

Taylor, who was once chairman of X at the start of Musk’s takeover bid, said in a statement yesterday on behalf of OpenAI’s board that “any potential reorganization of the company will strengthen our nonprofit and its mission to ensure that AI is for the benefit of all humanity.”