OpenAI CEO Gives Perfect Response To Elon Musk’s Acquisition Offer

In a twist of irony, you’d never guess who wants back in on OpenAI. If you guessed Elon Musk, you’d be right. According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk has made an unsolicited bid to buy OpenAI. This bid, valued at $97.4 billion, will purchase the nonprofit entity that controls OpenAI. Musk’s attorney, Marc Toberoff, later confirmed the offer.

Sam Altman’s response

$97.4 billion is a lot of money, but it looks like it isn’t enough to sway Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO. In a witty retort on X, Altman responded by saying, “No thank you, but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” For those unfamiliar with the reference, Elon Musk acquired Twitter (now known as X) back in 2022. Musk paid a whopping $44 billion for the social media network.

Altman’s “offer” of $9.74 billion is basically 10% of what Musk is willing to pay for OpenAI. But we can’t help but think it’s also a little jab at Musk and how much value X has lost ever since Musk took over.

Based on his response, Altman has absolutely zero interest in entertaining this bid. However, it remains to be seen if Musk will persist in his bid and potentially force a hostile takeover.

The irony of Musk’s bid

It’s not surprising that companies are interested in OpenAI. ChatGPT’s AI model burst onto the scene seemingly out of nowhere and kicked off the AI wars. Many companies have since tried to create their own AI models, but ChatGPT is still very much leading the pack.

However, Musk’s bid is particularly interesting. A brief history lesson on OpenAI. The company was co-founded by Musk and Altman back in 2015 as a charity. The goal, at that time, was to develop safe and beneficial AI. However, Musk left OpenAI in 2019.

Over the years, Musk and Altman have butted heads over OpenAI’s direction. Musk has publicly stated his unhappiness with OpenAI’s transition into a for-profit entity. The billionaire argued that AI should remain accessible and aligned with humanity’s best interests.

That is the goal that Altman and OpenAI are working towards. The CEO penned a blog post last month talking about how he wants the benefits of AI to reach as many people as possible. While both Altman and Musk’s goals appear to be the same, we suppose Musk has a point. OpenAI charges users a subscription of $20 a month which can go up to $200 a month.

There is a free version of ChatGPT. However, its features are more limited. On the other hand, the Plus and Pro subscriptions offer increased limits, access to newer and more advanced models, and image generation tools.