Sam Altman rejects Elon Musk’s $97B OpenAI offer, accuses Musk of trying to “slow down a competitor”

Just a day after Elon Musk surprised everyone with a $97 billion offer to buy OpenAI’s assets, CEO Sam Altman made it clear to staff that the board isn’t interested. In a message seen by someone familiar with the matter, Altman called Musk’s “supposed ‘bid’” out of line with OpenAI’s mission to develop advanced AI for humanity.

OpenAI’s 10-person board appears to be firmly behind Altman. Musk has been trying for months to stop OpenAI’s for-profit arm—which develops ChatGPT and other tools—from shifting away from nonprofit control by converting into a public benefit corporation. Musk claims that the move would leave the nonprofit shortchanged.

By Tuesday, things escalated. Altman accused Musk of trying to slow down the competition. Speaking to CNBC, Altman said Musk’s $97.4 billion proposal was more about “slowing down a competitor” than anything else.

When asked how seriously he’s taking Musk’s bid—which he already dismissed in a post on X—Altman replied, “Not particularly.”

“I think it’s to slow down a competitor and catch up with his thing, but I don’t really know … to the degree anybody does,” he added during the AI Action Summit in Paris.

Musk’s offer, confirmed by CNBC, is led by a group of investors aiming to take control of OpenAI’s nonprofit, which oversees the startup behind ChatGPT.

“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” CNBC reported, citing Musk’s attorney Marc Toberoff, noting that the offer was submitted on Monday.

Musk has his own AI company, xAI, which created the chatbot Grok.

CNBC has reached out to Toberoff, Tesla, and X for comments.

‘I’m not the one who tweeted funding secured’

Altman didn’t hold back when addressing Musk’s earlier suggestion that OpenAI lacks the funds to contribute to President Donald Trump’s Stargate joint venture, which is set to invest billions in U.S. computing infrastructure for AI development.

Announced last month, Stargate was said to be deploying $100 billion right away. Musk questioned whether the companies involved had enough capital, stating “they don’t actually have the money.”

Altman’s response? A pointed jab: “I’m not the one who tweeted funding secured. I just actually try to show up and build.”

That’s a clear shot at Musk’s infamous 2018 tweet claiming he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private at $420 per share. The tweet sparked an SEC investigation due to its impact on Tesla’s stock price. Musk and Tesla settled with the SEC, each paying $20 million in fines, and Musk stepped down as chairman.

no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want

— Sam Altman (@sama) February 10, 2025