Sam Altman turns down Musk’s $97B offer to buy OpenAI

Tesla CEO Elon Musk submitted a $97.4 billion offer on Monday for an investor group to buy out the ChatGPT parent company, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Musk’s lawyer Marc Toberof. Altman seemed to decline the offer in a post on Musk’s X.com. Altman countered with a $9.74 billion offer to purchase the X platform, formerly known as Twitter. Musk replied to the counteroffer by calling Altman a swindler and a scammer.

What’s the bad blood between Musk and Altman? The pair were co-chairs for OpenAI when the nonprofit was founded in 2015 for safety in technology and artificial intelligence development. Musk was a major donor to the nonprofit organization and expected a greater level of influence because of his financial support, according to Reuters. Instead, Altman created a for-profit subsidiary and sought investments from Microsoft, prompting a split. Musk later took issue with Altman restructuring the company last year to for-profit and called the move illegal.

Could the pair continue discussions at the AI summit in France? Though both have participated in the AI summit in Paris, the pair are unlikely to meet or discuss business there. Altman attended the summit’s kick-off on Monday. Musk opted to attend virtually and insisted crucial work kept him in Washington, D.C.

Dig deeper: Read my report for more on what’s happening at the Paris AI summit.