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OpenAI rejects Elon Musk's $97.4 billion takeover bid | Fortune
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This article covers OpenAI's rejection of Elon Musk's $97.4 billion takeover bid, relevant to AI governance and the ongoing debate over OpenAI's nonprofit-to-for-profit restructuring, which has implications for how powerful AI organizations are controlled and governed.
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Summary
OpenAI's board unanimously rejected Elon Musk's $97.4 billion unsolicited bid to acquire the nonprofit controlling OpenAI, stating the company is 'not for sale.' The rejection comes amid Musk's broader legal campaign to block OpenAI's restructuring into a for-profit entity. The bid may complicate OpenAI's ongoing fundraising and restructuring efforts, potentially raising the valuation floor for the nonprofit's assets.
Key Points
- •OpenAI's board unanimously rejected Musk's $97.4 billion bid, with chairman Bret Taylor calling it an attempt to 'disrupt his competition.'
- •Musk co-founded OpenAI but later launched rival AI startup xAI; his bid was backed by investors including 8VC, Baron Capital, and Vy Capital.
- •OpenAI argued Musk's acquisition offer contradicts his own lawsuit claiming OpenAI's assets cannot be transferred for private gain.
- •The bid may complicate OpenAI's planned restructuring and its talks with SoftBank for a funding round valuing it at up to $300 billion.
- •Legal experts note the bid could raise the minimum valuation the nonprofit must receive as part of any restructuring.
1 FactBase fact citing this source
| Entity | Property | Value | As Of |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI Foundation | key-event | Elon Musk-led consortium submits $97.4B bid to buy the nonprofit; unanimously rejected | Feb 2025 |
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Tech OpenAI ‘OpenAI is not for sale’: Elon Musk’s $97.4 billion bid is unanimously rejected by board
By Shirin Ghaffary Shirin Ghaffary , Rachel Metz Rachel Metz , and Bloomberg Bloomberg Down Arrow Button Icon By Shirin Ghaffary Shirin Ghaffary , Rachel Metz Rachel Metz , and Bloomberg Bloomberg Down Arrow Button Icon February 14, 2025, 4:57 PM ET Add us on Elon Musk. Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images OpenAI’s board of directors has formally rejected an offer from a group of investors led by Elon Musk to buy the nonprofit that controls the artificial intelligence company for $97.4 billion.
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“OpenAI is not for sale, and the board has unanimously rejected Mr. Musk’s latest attempt to disrupt his competition,” Bret Taylor, OpenAI’s chairman, said in a statement Friday on behalf of the board.
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI a decade ago before going on to launch a rival AI startup, enlisted a group of wealthy allies for an unsolicited cash bid to buy the nonprofit’s assets. Other backers of the proposal included Valor Equity Partners, Baron Capital, Atreides Management, Vy Capital, Joe Lonsdale’s 8VC and Ari Emanuel, through his investment fund. Musk said he hoped to return OpenAI to being “the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was.”
Marc Toberoff, a lawyer representing Musk and the investors, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The offer was quickly rebuffed earlier this week by OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman, who called it a tactic by a competitor to “slow us down” and stressed that the company is “not for sale.” Andrew Nussbaum, a counsel to the OpenAI board, also previously said in a statement that OpenAI was not looking to sell and stressed that the directors’ “sole fiduciary duty” is fulfilling the company’s mission to build more powerful, hypothetical AI systems called artificial general intelligence (AGI) that benefit humanity. “Respectfully,” he said, “it is not up to a competitor to decide what is in the best interests of OpenAI’s mission.”
Musk has repeatedly tried to derail OpenAI’s plans to restructure as a more conventional for-profit business. The billionaire filed two lawsuits against OpenAI for allegedly straying from its founding principles and asked a court to block the ChatGPT maker’s restructuring efforts. A judge recently said she was reluctant to immediately issue such an order in a case pitting “billionaires versus billionaires.”
In a court filing following Musk’s bid, OpenAI argued that his offer to buy the company undermines the very claim at the heart of his lawsuit — that its assets can’t be “transferred away” for “private gain.” Musk’s lawyers said in a subsequent legal finding that Musk would withdraw his bid if OpenAI agreed to halt its conversion to a for
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