Source: Quantum
As if Elon Musk didn't have enough to do, a consortium of investors led by him announced plans for a hostile takeover of OpenAI on Monday.
On Monday, a team of investors led by Elon Musk submitted a $97.6 billion (about 713.3 billion yuan) offer to acquire OpenAI. The news came from Musk's lawyer Mark Toberoff, who confirmed the report to The Wall Street Journal.
The investor consortium said in a press release to TechCrunch that they offered nearly $97.4 billion to acquire all of OpenAI's assets and were "ready to consider matching or exceeding higher bids."
In 2015, Musk co-founded OpenAI with Sam Altman and many others. The unsolicited bid is the latest escalation in the war between Musk and co-founder Sam Altman. Musk is already locked in a legal dispute with OpenAI, having filed an injunction against the company in 2024 against its efforts to move away from nonprofit status. The Musk-led group positioned the move as an attempt to refocus OpenAI on open-source AI, which was its original goal.
“The time has come for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused public-good force it once was,” Musk told the Journal, via Toberoff. “We will make sure that happens.” Musk’s own AI company, xAI, is also in the running, fueling speculation that the two companies could merge if the acquisition goes through.
In a related statement provided to TechCrunch, Musk singled out X’s Grok model. “At x.AI, we uphold the values that OpenAI has pledged to uphold,” the billionaire said. “We have made Grok open source, and we respect the rights of content creators,” Musk said. "It's time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused public-good force it once was. We're going to make sure of that."
In response to Musk's proposal, Altman wrote a playful X post earlier Monday, writing: "No thanks, but if you want, we can buy Twitter for $9.74 billion (about 71.18 billion yuan)." Musk and investors acquired Twitter for $44 billion (about 321.6 billion yuan) in 2022. OpenAI has not yet responded to a request for comment.
The consortium includes Baron Capital Group Inc., Valor Management LLC, Atreides Management, LP, Vy Fund III LP, Emmanuel Capital Management LLC and Eight Partners VC LLC.
While Emanuel Capital Management has a lower public profile, several other firms are firmly in Musk's orbit.
Baron Capital Group was founded by Ron Baron and manages multiple mutual funds. The firm's Baron Partners Fund, which he co-manages with his son Michael Baron, holds large stakes in Tesla and SpaceX.
Atreides Management is associated with Boston-based hedge fund Atreides. As previously reported by Bloomberg, founder Gavin Baker worked at Fidelity for 18 years and made his first investment in SpaceX there. Atreides has also invested in Tesla, and Baker is a public supporter of Musk's massive Tesla pay package.
Vallo Management was founded by Antonio Gracias, an early investor in SpaceX and former Tesla board member. He was also an investor in Musk's SolarCity company before Tesla acquired it.
Vy Capital, founded by Alexander Tamas, also holds a stake in SpaceX and has invested in several of Musk's other companies, such as The Boring Company and brain-computer interface company Neuralink.
According to public documents, Eight Partners Venture Capital is better known as Joe Lonsdale's company 8VC. Lonsdale is a big fan of Musk and moves in similar circles. He recently appeared on CNBC and described himself as a "super fan" of Musk's Department of American Government Efficiency (DOGE), an interview that Musk retweeted on X.
It is unclear how sincere this group is. A specious analysis circulated online that this is more of a provocation than an offer. Some say this is Musk's attempt to drive up the price that the Altman team would pay to buy OpenAI's underlying assets in order to reorganize it from its original nonprofit status.
Musk co-founded the nonprofit artificial intelligence research organization OpenAI and has been trying to block Altman's reorganization plan.
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