Everything we know about Elon Musk's $97.4 billion bid to buy ChatGPT owner OpenAI

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has launched a $97 billion bid to buy OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT.

On Monday (10 February), Musk made public that he and a group of investors are willing to offer OpenAI – an artificial intelligence research organisation – for $97.4 billion (£78.7 billion).

In 2015, Musk co-founded the company alongside its current chief executive Sam Altman, but he left before things really took off with the launch of ChatGPT in 2022.

OpenAI was initially launched as a non-profit but is currently in the process of transitioning to a for-profit company. It is the non-profit that controls OpenAI which Musk is offering to purchase.

Musk’s bid, reported by The Wall Street Journal, comes amid legal action over the direction of the company, which has been ongoing for several years. Musk says he disagrees with moving away from being a non-profit.

In a press release about the bid he said: “It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was.

“We will make sure that happens.”

It seems there is no love lost between Musk and his former colleague Altman, as the OpenAI chief took to X/Twitter, to give his thoughts on the unsolicited offer.

Altman wrote: “No thank you but we will buy Twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”

Less than 10 minutes after Altman posted, Musk replied: “Swindler.”

Musk bought the social media platform, now known as X, for $44 billion (£38 billion) in 2022, but since his takeover, the site has seen a mass exodus of both users and advertisers.

The fortunes of OpenAI are on the up, as the company was recently valued at $157 billion (£127.1 billion) and is on track to become one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Elsewhere, Musk is busy running his controversial government department, DOGE, and has dismissed a rumour he was going to buy TikTok.

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